Lillyhorn Roman Villa, Scheduled Monument

Lillyhorn Roman Villa, Scheduled Monument

A Roman villa excavated in 1845 was found to consist of 29 rooms and a hypocaust. Some of the rooms contained tesselated pavements and a pot containing 1223 bronze coins from Valerian to Diocletian (AD 253-305) was found beneath the floor.

Some of the building material was reused to construct a building in the grounds of Watercombe House. Finds from the villa also included tiles and pottery. At least four burials were retrieved from a mound close to the villa.

Most of the finds were deposited at Stroud Museum.

A Roman villa was excavated by T Baker in 1845 in a field called Church Piece at Lillyhorn. It occupied an area 318 feet by 274 feet and consisted of twenty-nine rooms, including a hypocaust.  Some of the rooms contained tessellated pavements, and in one room a round pot containing 1223 bronze coins ranging from Valerian to Diocletian was discovered buried beneath the floor. 

A building was erected in the grounds of Watercombe House (SO 9251 0490) constructed of Roman materials from the villa, and was used to house the remains found during the excavation.  Finds from the villa now preserved at Stroud museum (5) include floor tiles inscribed TPFC and TP, Samian ware with potter's marks CELSIANI (Hadrian to Antonin) and VERECV (NDVS), part of the coin hoard, red, black and grey wares, iron and glass objects.  Two Roman altars and other stones discovered in 1861 built into Bisley parish church (SO 90 NW 13) were thought probably to have originated from the villa.  (2-6)

At least four burials, including one female, together with a miscellaneous collection of pottery, floor tiles, drain pipes and other material, were found in 1938 in a mound at SO 9125 0440.  The mound, thought to be the refuse heap of the villa, lies N-S just below a scarp edge.  (7-8)

Apart from a wide scatter of Roman brick and tile fragments in the general area (now under plough) of the published OS 6" siting, there is nothing to be seen of the villa.  The mound, referred to by Lemmon and Rudd (7) was not identified.  The natural scarp to the west of the villa is much disturbed by natural slumping and by dumping of waste in recent times and is wooded and overgrown.  (9)

Historic England

In 2013/14 Oakridge History Group carried out a geophysical survey of the villa site, you can find out about this here :
https://oakridgearchaeology.wordpress.com/

References & Bibliography :
1. Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date) 6" 1960
2. General reference Witts GB Archaeol Handbook of Glos. 1883 No 2. Page(s)55
3. Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal (T Baker) 2, 1845 Page(s)42-5
4. General reference Liversidge J. Roman Villas in Britain. 1948 App 6 Page(s)46
5. Bristol Archaeological Research Group (B.A.R.G.) bulletin (L F J Walrond) 3 No 4, 1969 Page(s)84
6. Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal (H Lowder) 20, 1863 Page(s)186-7
7. Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (AC Lemmon & M A Rudd) 60, 1938 Page(s)351
8. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1976 Ancient and historical monuments in the County of Gloucester. Volume one: Iron Age and Romano-British monuments in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds 1, 1976 Page(s)15-6 
9. Field Investigators Comments F1 ASP 26-SEP-77
10. by Eleanor Scott 1993 A gazetteer of Roman villas in Britain Leicester archaeology monographsNo.1 (1993) - GS 13 no.1 Page(s)69
11. Society of Antiquaries of London Archaeologia : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity 19, 1821 Page(s)178-183