Monument record MDO2718 - Roman Villa in Bindles Close, Thornford

A Roman Villa discovered in 1849 when a single tessellated floor was uncovered. In 1876 the site was excavated by Prof Buckman, who found several rooms. The site was relocated in 1955 for the Ordnance Survey and partly re excavated by John Leach in 1961-2, the discrepancies between the account of Buckman and the remains found in 1961 led to the excavator raising doubts as to whether the site he was working on was the same as that excavated by Buckman.

Roman remains including tesserae and pottery were found during drainage operations in a meadow to the north of Thornford. A few years later, in 1876, an excavation was carried out which revealed four rooms each with a mosaic pavement, also "passages", of which two were paved, showing a somewhat extensive range of buildings. Roof-tiles, painted wall plaster, pottery, etc were also found. Excavations in October 1961 on the site which lies in a field beside the footpath from Thornford to Bradford Abbas, about 300 yds south of the river Yeo, were carried out by Leach and the Sherborne School Archaeological Society.

"Two seasons excavations have produced a plan of a winged corridor villa of conventional shape". Six rooms have been uncovered, one of which had a simple tessellated pavement, linked by a corridor paved with slabs of lias. The majority of the floors were paved with rough slabs. Room 4 had the tessellated pavement along with painted wall plaster and a hearth. The corridor was 7 ft 6 ins wide and ran along the south side of rooms 1 to 4. Coins found ranged from Caracalla (AD 211-217) to Valens (AD370). Samian, coarse ware and various animal bones have also been found. There are signs of more buildings some 60 yds to the south and … "It is by no means certain that the building here described is identical with that discovered by Professor Buckman … It seems reasonable to expect that there remains a great deal more to be discovered at Thornford." <1> <3>

DO 30 Listed as the site of a Roman villa which began as a small rectangular block of rooms and was subsequently developed into a winged corridor house. <8>

Buckman, J, 1877, Notes on a Roman Villa at Thornford. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 38-39 (Article in serial). SDO21068.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1877, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 38-39 (Serial). SDO2.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, 1888 (Map). SDO10373.

(ST 59451363) Roman Tessellated Pavement Found AD 1865.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 149 (Monograph). SDO97.

(1) VILLA, in the N.W. corner of the parish, was excavated in 1876. The results were described by Prof. J. Buckman (Dorset Nat. Hist. & Ant. F.C. I, p. 41) as those of a dwelling of the second class. Discoveries of tesserae, pottery, etc., during field-drainage operations, led to the excavations which revealed the remains of four rooms, each of which had a pavement of a different pattern, and corridors. "These floors and walls, having been cleared out, exposed the outline of four rooms besides passages with broken bits of work showing a somewhat extensive range of buildings." "In two of the passages were rude pavements made of slabs of various sizes." The "floors were of very simple construction, consisting of tesserae of about an inch and a half square, which were made from the white lias, obtained probably from Sparkford, and broken potsherds." "These which were of grey stone and red brick were arranged in simple patterns. The involved fret was a little more complicated, but there was only a little of this and all four pavements . . . were made of the two simple substances named." On the floors were found considerable quantities of painted wall-plaster with bands and spots, also many stone roofing tiles. The pottery included fragments of Samian, amphorae, mortaria, etc. Three unidentifiable coins were found.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1956, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1955, 147 (Serial). SDO55.

<5> Robinson, Rev G S, 1964, Journal of the Sherborne Historical Society, 8-13 (Serial). SDO10581.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1966, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1965, 104-107 (Serial). SDO65.

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1978, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1976, 64-65 (Serial). SDO76.

<8> Scott, E, 1993, A Gazetteer of Roman villas in Britain, 54-5 (Bibliographic reference). SWX1795.

<9> Lompolo, Virva, 2021, 33kV Pole Replacement near Bradford Abbas, Dorset. Archaeological Watching Brief (Unpublished document). SDO17311.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 196188 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 7 2024 6:29AM