The excavation of a Roman villa site near Goring-on-Thames was one of SOAG’s major projects – the field work was undertaken from 1993 until 2019. The project exposed a very large area of the villa and included an extensive survey of the landscape around the villa.
This page describes the main phases of the excavations.
- Background and site discovery
- 1993 – 2012 First trenches
- 2013-2015 Further exploration of the building
- 2017 – 2019 New discoveries at the eastern end of the villa building
Background and site discovery
In the mid-1980s SOAG volunteers took part in an Oxford Archaeology investigation of the route of Water Board pipeline at Gatehampton, near Goring, Oxfordshire.
Neolithic, Bronze Age and Roman features were found and SOAG volunteers discovered an early post glacial lithic scatter, part of a knapping floor, confirmed by Prof. Richard Bradley to be a nationally important example of its kind.
Also discovered was a Roman corn drier, cobbled yard, ditches and track ways, indicating the presence of a Roman farmstead, set up in the second century. Subsequent fieldwalking by SOAG revealed the largest quantity of Roman material in area close to Gatehampton Farm and following excavation by SOAG, the site of the 3rd – 4th century villa building was discovered.
Throughout the many years of excavation on the site, SOAG has benefitted from the continued and dedicated support of the landowners along with the help and support of the County Archaeologists and of Oxford Archaeology.
Throughout the many years of excavation on the site, SOAG has benefitted from the continued and dedicated support of the landowners along with the help and support of the County Archaeologists and of Oxford Archaeology.
The importance of volunteer participation was always a key element of the Gatehampton project and hundreds of volunteers, of all ages and experience, have participated over the years. The site was one of the first to participate in National Archaeology Week as far back as 2004 and Open days became an annual event attracting many visitors.
Allen, T G, “Lithics and Landscape: archaeological discoveries on the Thames Water pipeline at Gatehampton Farm, Goring, Oxfordshire 1985-92“; Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph No.7 Oxford Archaeological Unit 1995.
1993 – 2012 First trenches, a bath house, Rural Roman Rats and geophysical survey of the villa farmstead
The first major trench, discovery of the villa building
After some small exploratory trenches, the first major trench, Trench 3, was dug across the villa enclosure ditch, full of Roman material – building rubble, plaster and tile, pottery, animal bones, nails. Trench 3 was then extended (shown right), a long and narrow trench across the building, the flint and chalk wall footings and chalk floor surfaces of the villa were exposed, confirming the position, width and an indication of the layout of the villa associated with the farmstead. Part of a large central room (10), with small rooms (9 & 11) on either side were found.
There appeared to be two phases, during the late third to early fourth century, a progression from working areas, indicated by several hearths and furnaces (one with metalworking), to rooms with chalk floors and painted wall plaster.
An area of tessellated pavement with large terracotta tesserae was found in Room 11 (shown left) and over 100 small mosaic tesserae were discovered in a gap in a wall in Room 10. It is possible that a mosaic floor was present but later removed.
The western bath house
Excavation moved westward to an area where early exploration and geophysical survey indicated a possible bath house. Trench 7 was opened and the western bath house of the villa was excavated, consisting of a stoke room, two small, heated rooms and an apsidal room. As the excavation progressed in this area, the remarkably well-preserved features of the bath house were revealed. These included a stoke room with arched furnace flue, a hypocaust with pilae stacks in situ, filled with debris of box flue tiles, opus signinum cement, brightly coloured painted wall plaster and tufa. A further heated room with a red opus signinum floor and small pool and an apsidal room that may have been a plunge pool.
Excavating the rooms of the villa
The building was excavated in phases over many years with Trench 7 extended as excavation progressed. Most of the rooms and corridors of the villa had well preserved chalk or mortar floors and flint wall or chalk wall footings with painted plaster occasionally still in place or more often found in debris at the base of the walls.
The large central room 2, originally a barn with evidence of metalworking hearths and furnaces, was found to have been enclosed when the bath house was constructed. Some patches of tessellated pavement with large terracotta tessera were found within the later chalk surface, with coin evidence from an early floor level indicating an early to mid-4th century date for the construction of the bath house and development of the rooms of the western end of the building.
Roman Rural rats
A large assemblage of small mammal and other small vertebrate bones was excavated within a relatively small area of Room 2, the remains of barn owl pellets, dropped by owls nesting in the rafters of the abandoned building. The assemblage included black rats making this the first record of black rats from a rural Romano-British setting in Oxfordshire. Radiocarbon dates place the presence of rats and the abandonment of the villa during the second half of the fourth century.
Walker, T, Ridout Sharpe, J & Williams, H “Barn Owls and Black Rats from a Rural Roman Villa at Gatehampton, South Oxfordshire“. Environmental Archaeology 2021, Vol.26, No. 5,487-496
Geophysical Survey
In 2004 SOAG completed an extensive geophysical survey. The aim was to look at the wider landscape around the villa, to identify the different elements of the Roman farmstead and link our evidence with that found by Oxford Archaeology south of the site in the late 80s. The survey confirmed a multi-period landscape with Bronze Age barrows overlaid with the features of the Roman farmstead (ditches, trackways and the villa enclosure ditch.
Trenches were opened over the villa enclosure ditch and over two small iron age and Roman ditches north of the villa building and a cobbled area that may have been an outbuilding.
2013-2015 Further exploration of the building
Excavating the villa building
Excavation in Trench 7 progressed on a larger scale, following the backfilling of the bath house and rooms 1 ,2, 4 and part of the corridor 3 and the extension of the trench eastwards.
As the excavation progressed through the central part of the villa building, Rooms 5 to 11, the possible phases of development started to emerge. The connection with the part of the building found in Trench 3 was confirmed, with the pattern of parallel lateral walls enclosing larger central spaces continuing. However, a difference in construction was noted between the part of the building in Rooms 9 to 11 where all the internal walls are of chalk, and the rest of the building where all the internal walls are of flint. Dating evidence suggests the eastern end of the villa is the earliest part of the building, mid-3rd to early 4th century CE. Room 7 was found to have had an earlier phase too; more substantial wall footings, suggesting it was once a small barn extension to the eastern section of the villa
The long narrow corridor, Room 3, is likely to be a later addition, it overlies an earlier feature, an apsidal ditch and possible wall extending beyond the southern wall line. A tile sill feature at the southern end of the tesselated floor of Room 8 indicating it was originally open to the enclosure, also supports this. The centre section of corridor Room 3 was probably an open veranda. Large quantities of pottery in a wide range of 3rd to 4th century Romano British Wares were found both within, and just outside the corridor close to several hearths, along with burnt animal bone, suggesting the use of this area for food preparation and storage. The floor surface consisted of tessellated pavement patched with chalk.
The long narrow corridor, Room 3, is likely to be a later addition, it overlies an earlier feature, an apsidal ditch and possible wall extending beyond the southern wall line. A tile sill feature at the southern end of the tesselated floor of Room 8 (shown in the image left) indicating it was originally open to the enclosure, also supports this.
The centre section of corridor Room 3 was probably an open veranda. Large quantities of pottery in a wide range of 3rd to 4th century Romano British Wares were found both within, and just outside the corridor close to several hearths, along with burnt animal bone, suggesting the use of this area for food preparation and storage. The floor surface consisted of tessellated pavement patched with chalk.
Room 6, one of the larger rooms, had a well laid mortar floor and painted wall plaster in situ along the base of one wall in a red, green and white ‘zig zag’ design. Two worked bone objects were also found in Room 6 and delicate glass fragments. In contrast to most of the rooms of the villa, Room 6 appears to have changed to a working area in a later phase with a small hearth and furnace suitable for metalworking set into the earlier mortar floor. A set of three iron hinges were found in the corner of the room, at a doorway, in position where a door had fallen. There was an interesting concentration of finds in the small Room 11; iron box strappings and studs, an antler, 10 low value copper alloy coins, and a fragment of pewter plate.
2017 – 2019 New discoveries at the eastern end of the villa building. The eastern bath house, cesspit and Trier Motto beakers, earlier walls and pits
A geophysical survey of the eastern end of the site showing the continuation of the villa building, had led to the opening of two further small trenches. Trench 16 was opened revealing the eastern end wall of the building and part of the cess pit. In Trench 18, the discovery of the pool feature (13) indicating a second bath house, meant that plans for the closure of the site in 2017 were cancelled and excavation continued for a further two years.
It was found that both the cess pit and bath house were added to the earlier building and were part of the same complex. The two-metre-deep cess pit was purpose built with channels and inlets for water and the discharge of waste. Excavation of the cess pit revealed two layers of organic material, beneath which were black burnished ware pottery jars and two Trier motto beakers, (shown in image right) all deliberately placed and largely complete but broken by the weight of the fill above.
A wide tiled feature possibly for channelling water, led from the cess pit southwards to the bath house furnace. The well-preserved bath house consisted of a stokeroom, two heated rooms with hypocausts (14 & 15) with some pilae still in situ, and an opus signinum floor. A cool room (12) that led to a sunken pool (13) lined with tile and opus signinum.
Exploration of the area outside the eastern end of the building showed a complex area of large pits, representing a high level of activity within the villa enclosure. There were many intercutting and overlaying pits and channels. Two of the larger pits were lined with yellow clay allowing water storage and had interconnecting channels, it is not clear what the purpose of these pits was. An L shaped wall of an earlier building or enclosure was also discovered.
The site was finally closed in early 2020.