Sparsholt Roman Villa was a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

near the village of

Sparsholt, Hampshire Sparsholt (/ˈspɑːʃəʊlt/) is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, west of Winchester. In 1908 its area was . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded its population as 982. The parish also includes the Hamlet (p ...

, England. It was constructed in phases from the 2nd to the 5th century, and then abandoned. It was excavated in 1965–72. Nothing is visible at the site today, but finds from the excavations are on display in Winchester City Museum, and one wing of the villa has been reconstructed at

Butser Ancient Farm Butser Ancient Farm is an archaeological open-air museum and experimental archaeology site located near Petersfield in Hampshire, southern England. Butser features experimental reconstructions of prehistoric, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon build ...

History

The earliest known house uncovered at Sparsholt was a single-aisled farmhouse probably built in the 2nd century.Dominic Perring, (2002), ''The Roman House in Britain'', pages 53–4. Routledge It may initially have been undivided internally, but by 200 AD it had been replaced by an aisled house with living rooms and a bath suite at one end.Richard Hingley, (1989), ''Rural settlement in Roman Britain'', page 69. Seaby In the early 4th century a separate winged-corridor house was constructed at right-angles to the aisled house, and both buildings formed two sides of a rectangular enclosure. A barn-like structure was added on the third side of the enclosure.Guy De la Bédoyère, (1993), ''Book of Roman villas and the countryside'', page 63. English Heritage The fourth side contained the entrance to the enclosure which was opposite the winged-corridor house. Tessellated pavements and mosaics were added to both houses. The last structure to be built, perhaps during the post-Roman period, was a timbered hall, outside the courtyard.Monument No. 231909
Pastscape This incorporated material plundered from the earlier buildings, but nothing distinctively post-Roman or early

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

has been found on the site.

Excavation and display

Sparsholt Villa Mosaic - Winchester City Museum

The villa is located in West Wood, just west of the village of

. Trial excavations were conducted in 1890 and 1895 which revealed part of the plan of the villa. Excavations, which were led by David E. Johnston, were conducted from 1965–72.David E. Johnston, (2002), ''Discovering Roman Britain'', pages 61–2. Osprey Nothing is visible on the ground today. On display in Winchester City Museum is a near-intact 4th-century geometric mosaic taken from the aisled building.Roger John Anthony Wilson, (2002), ''A guide to the Roman remains in Britain'', page 113. Constable Also on display in the museum is a

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

containing a female portrait within a tondo, which may show the mistress of the house. Another fresco is a painted version of a

guilloché Guilloché (), or guilloche (), is a decorative technique in which a very precise, intricate and repetitive pattern is mechanically engraved into an underlying material via engine turning, which uses a machine of the same name. Engine turning m ...

– a type of pattern common in mosaics but extremely rare in Roman frescos. At

near

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own Petersfield railway station, railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rai ...

is a reconstruction of the aisled villa building. The building was constructed by volunteers and includes a functioning

hypocaust A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...

system.

History

Excavation and display

References

Further reading