Rural Villa in Eccles

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

mid-1st to 4th century CE

Location

Eccles
Eccles (Pleiades:79448)

Garden

Rural Villa in Eccles

Garden Description

This country estate in modern Kent possessed a large ornamental pool (P in Fig. 1) in the area in front of the main residence (A in Fig. 1) and to the east of the attached bath house (Fig. 1). The masonry pool measuring 25 x 3.50 meters lay parallel to the house frontage. From the pool ran a masonry drain. Although no traces of bedding trenches or plantings have been detected in the yard around the pool, it might be assumed that the pool was a centerpiece of a garden (G in Fig. 1). Interestingly, in the backfill of a ditch under the southeast wing of the villa at least thirty planting pots were retrieved in excavations. The vessels had three knife-cut triangular holes in the lower body and a round hole through the base (Fig. 2, nest page). The pots were misfired and almost certainly manufactured in kilns near the villa in the decade after CE 50. Although the planting pots were not found in context in pits within a garden, it is clear that they were being produced locally for use at Eccles or other gardens nearby. Excavations have established that the estate was continually occupied from the middle of the 1st century until the 4th century. In its final 4th century form, the villa complex measured 89 x 116 meters, including its wings and the courtyard.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the villa with the main house (A), a possible garden (G) and a large pool (P).

Credit: Adapted from Detsicas 1983, fig. 25.

Images

Fig. 2: Clay planting pot with cut-out holes.

Credit: Adapted from Detsicas 1981, fig. 26.2.

Bibliography

A. Detsicas, The Cantiaci, Gloucester, 1983, pp. 103-107, fig. 20. (worldcat)
R.J. Zeepvat, "Fishponds in Roman Britain," in: M. Aston, ed., Medieval Fish, Fisheries and Fishponds in England. British Archaeological Reports, Brit. Ser. 182, Oxford, 1988, p. 18, fig. 2. (worldcat)
A. Detsicas, "A group of pottery from Eccles, Kent," in Roman Pottery Research in Britain and Northwest Europe, British Archaeological Reports, Int. Ser. 123, Oxford, 1981, pp. 441-445.

Keywords

ditches (AAT:300006178)
drains (AAT:300052564)
horticultural containers (AAT:300198749)
piscinae (pools) (AAT:300375619)
villae rusticae (AAT:300005518)
water baths (AAT:300248755)

Eccles on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Rural Villa in Eccles

Dates

Location

Garden

Garden Description

Plans

Images

Bibliography

Keywords

Places