Details

The monument includes the recorded extent of a Romano British villa situated
on low lying clay land at Kingshill Farm. The farm is situated 200m south
west of Ermin Street, to the north west of Swindon, near the River Ray, a
tributary of the Thames.
The building, which lies beneath waste ground is known from partial
excavation. A trench revealed two large walls, 0.7m thick built from
rectangular Corralian limestone set in pink mortar. One, traced for a length
of 13m is orientated east-west and is joined 3m from its eastern end by
another 5m long and orientated north-south. In the western angle, less
substantial walls form a series of rooms with a mortar floor. Immediately
to the east of the north-south wall a series of channels branch from a gap in
the east-west wall which is interpreted as a stoke hole, part of a channelled
hypercaust heating system. The channels are about 0.3m wide and lined with
horizontal slabs of coral rag.
Large quantities of Roman domestic ware and some imitation Samian ware has
been found adjacent to the site, demonstrating that it will extend beyond the
area of the scheduling. However this area in not fully understood and is not
included in the scheduling.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Romano-British villas were extensive rural estates at the focus of which were
groups of domestic, agricultural and occasionally industrial buildings. The
term "villa" is now commonly used to describe either the estate or the
buildings themselves. The buildings usually include a well-appointed dwelling
house, the design of which varies considerably according to the needs, taste
and prosperity of the occupier. Most of the houses were partly or wholly
stone-built, many with a timber-framed superstructure on masonry footings.
Roofs were generally tiled and the house could feature tiled or mosaic floors,
underfloor heating, wall plaster, glazed windows and cellars. Many had
integral or separate suites of heated baths. The house was usually accompanied
by a range of buildings providing accommodation for farm labourers, workshops
and storage for agricultural produce. These were arranged around or alongside
a courtyard and were surrounded by a complex of paddocks, pens, yards and
features such as vegetable plots, granaries, threshing floors, wells and
hearths, all approached by tracks leading from the surrounding fields. Villa
buildings were constructed throughout the period of Roman occupation, from the
first to the fourth centuries AD. They are usually complex structures occupied
over several hundred years and continually remodelled to fit changing
circumstances. They could serve a wide variety of uses alongside agricultural
activities, including administrative, recreational and craft functions, and
this is reflected in the considerable diversity in their plan. The least
elaborate villas served as simple farmhouses whilst, for the most complex, the
term "palace" is not inappropriate. Villa owners tended to be drawn from a
limited elite section of Romano-British society. Although some villas belonged
to immigrant Roman officials or entrepreneurs, the majority seem to have been
in the hands of wealthy natives with a more-or-less Romanised lifestyle, and
some were built directly on the sites of Iron Age farmsteads. Roman villa
buildings are widespread, with between 400 and 1000 examples recorded
nationally. The majority of these are classified as `minor' villas to
distinguish them from `major' villas. The latter were a very small group of
extremely substantial and opulent villas built by the very wealthiest members
of Romano-British society. Minor villas are found throughout lowland Britain
and occasionally beyond. Roman villas provide a valuable index of the rate,
extent and degree to which native British society became Romanised, as well as
indicating the sources of inspiration behind changes of taste and custom. In
addition, they serve to illustrate the agrarian and economic history of the
Roman province, allowing comparisons over wide areas both within and beyond
Britain. As a very diverse and often long-lived type of monument, a
significant proportion of the known population are identified as nationally
important.

The Roman villa at Kingshill Farm is well preserved. Partial excavation
has shown that it contains information that will relate to the economy of the
area in the Roman period and environmental information relating to the
landscape in which it was built.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Callender, M, Thomas, N, 'Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society' in A Roman House at Kingshill Cricklade, , Vol. 55, (1954), 34-39

Source: Historic England