Monument record MDO767 - Roman villa in Walls Field with possible Iron Age predecessor, Charminster

Structural and other remains including wall fragments and a Roman mosaic 'of very interesting design', painted plaster, roofing- and hypocaust tiles, pottery, glass, architectural fragments and coins, collectively suggesting a Romanised villa spanning the second- to fourth centuries AD. Some Iron Age material has been found, suggesting a later Iron Age or early Romano-British antecedent.

DO 6 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. <4>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1961, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1960, 86-87 (Serial). SDO60.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 66729492) ROMAN BUILDING (R) (site of) (NAT)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 72 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(29) Roman Villa in Walls Field (66729492). A tessellated pavement was found in 1891 on Chalk at the foot of an E.-facing slope, about 260 ft. above O.D. and some 100 yds. W. of the R. Cerne. An area of mosaic 'of very interesting design' covering 12 ft. by 4 ft. was cleared in 1891 by E. Cunnington and F. A . H. Vinon. The design, a square of small white tesserae surrounded by a border of blue and red, had apparently formed a square of 15 ft. Excavations in 1960 by H. S. L. Dewar revealed a furnace flue, three flint steps and two fragments of walling. Two reused voussoirs of Ham Hill stone, slate and tile roofing materials, hypocaust tiles, tesserae, painted wall plaster, one piece with a 'convulvulus', and window glass, indicate a major structure. Samian, green-glazed and New Forest ware, and coins of Victorinus, Tetricus II and Gratian suggest occpuation in the 2nd to 4th centuries A.D. Near the building lay an inhumation burial with a bronze brooch pin. Iron Age sherds were also found. Some 19th-century finds are in D.C.M. (Dorset County Chronicle, 2nd. April, 1891, 5; Dorset Procs. XIII (1891), xxii; XVII (1895), xxv; XXI (1900), 84; LXXXII (1960), 86-7; S. & D.N. & Q. XXVII (1961), 7-10).'

<4> Scott, E, 1993, A Gazetteer of Roman villas in Britain, 51 No.1 (Bibliographic reference). SWX1795.

<5> Place, C, 2008, Forston Contact Tank Protection, Charminster, Dorset. An Archaeological Watching Brief (Unpublished document). SDO15199.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453248 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 28 2023 1:43PM