Reconstructing Great Witcombe Roman Villa

I head out to Gloucestershire today, hunting for a luxurious Roman villa 💒, located a stones throw from Cotswolds Way 🤩 Armed with my drones, camera and supported by LIDAR modelling, I reconstruct 🔨 the Great Witcombe Roman Villa to how it probably looked 1800 years ago 👏

The remains of this large and luxurious Roman villa lie in a peaceful setting near the Cotswold Way. Once at the heart of a large country estate, the villa was built about AD 250, and lived in until the 5th century. The remains include a bathhouse complex and perhaps the shrine of a water spirit. Mosaic pavements (preserved within a modern building) hint at the villa’s opulence in Roman times.

Great Witcombe was built sometime between the mid-2nd and mid-3rd centuries AD. There may have been an earlier, smaller villa down the slope, where a field survey has identified a rectangular building. This may be the building uncovered by excavations in 1819, which reportedly had abundant wall plaster, but was thought to have been destroyed by the excavation.

The original plan of the main villa was a symmetrical U-shape, carefully terraced into the hillside. The west wing consisted almost entirely of two bath-houses (suites of baths), which were both in use at the same time. The east wing comprised kitchens and storerooms. A rectangular dining room projected from the north side of the central range, which was probably open on one side to provide a covered walkway with a view down the hillside. Both wings had an upper floor where the family lived, and there was probably an upper level above the walkway too. The villa’s entrance may have been straight onto the upper storey.

In the 4th century a series of alterations was made. One of the bath-houses was enlarged and remodelled, and the lower east wing was expanded to create a large barn-like space. Finally, the rectangular dining room was replaced with an octagonal room, which may have had a tower.

There is controversy over exactly when this villa was built. Usually it is fairly easy to date Roman buildings by stratigraphy (the layers in the soil), but when this villa was excavated the stratigraphy was not recorded. Looking at the dates of the finds, Peter Leach, the archaeologist who published a report on the site excavations in 1998, concluded that the villa was probably built in the early 3rd century AD. However, mosaic experts have dated the mosaics stylistically to the late 2nd century AD, in which case the villa must have been built by then.

One possible explanation is that there was an earlier villa – perhaps the one identified on the field survey – which was served by the original lower bath-house, and that the renovations to the baths happened soon after the main villa was begun, about AD 200.

The wealthy owners of Great Witcombe may have been involved in politics and administration at the nearby Roman town of Glevum (now Gloucester). This was a common occupation for the rich and powerful of Roman Britain.

The Romano-Britons who lived here may have sought rural peace in choosing this location, but in fact they were well connected. Ermin Way, the Roman road that connected Corinium (now Cirencester) and Glevum, passes less than a mile to the north. Gloucester is only five miles away and Cirencester ten. The villa owners could easily have gone to market in either town and returned the same day.

Many people other than the owners would have lived at Great Witcombe, including slaves who worked on the estate. They would have farmed the fields, looked after the animals and stoked furnaces for the industrial work done here. Finds from the site suggest that metalworking took place on site, including ironworking, lead working and copper-alloy and pewter casting. Down the slope is evidence for much more Roman activity, probably industrial processes associated with the villa.

We know that tiles for the roof and baths were also made here, because wasters – discarded tiles which did not survive the kiln – have been found in the stream.

ADDRESS: Brockworth, Gloucestershire, GL3 4TW

OPENING TIMES: Open 10am-6pm daily from Apr until Oct, and 10am-4pm from Nov to Mar. £2 parking charge applies to non-members.

Special thanks to English Heritage: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/v...


My 360 Images: https://kuula.co/profile/clinkadink/p...
My Instagram:   / lambourne_photography  
My Twitter:   / lambourne_chris  

SOFTWARE:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Premiere Pro
DJI Media Maker
MS Image Composite Editor
Autopano Giga
Planlauf Terrain
Sketchup Pro
V-Ray

HARDWARE:

DJI Pocket 2 Camera
DJI Wireless Mic Transmitter
PolarPro Cinema Series Filter Vivid Collection
DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone
DJI Mini 2 drone
PolarPro Vivid Filter Collection
Freewell Long Exposure Series Filters