Chedworth Roman Villa

One Sunday afternoon recently we went to Chedworth Roman Villa, which is about an hour north of Bristol.
The Chedworth Roman Villa was discovered and excavated in 1864.
The villa was probably built at that spot because there is a fresh water spring that continues to flow on the property. The main part of the villa was built about 120 A.D. and was added to over a period of about 3 centuries during the time period when Britain was part of the Roman Empire. Remains of different parts of the villa can be seen, including two bath houses with mosaic floors, a water shrine, latrine, walls of rooms, hypocausts (Roman under-floor central heating), and columns that held up raised floors.

The part that has been excavated is designed around a square that is a grass area. There is an arm of it that goes off to the north east, and it is thought that there is a matching section still to be discovered on the south and east side, but that property is not available for excavating.

It is amazing to see parts of construction that are that over 1500 years old!
In the next photos you will see an artist's conception of one of the bath houses, an explanation of the bath house, and then some of the original tile floors.




The following shows a picture of some men working on deteriorating tiles that have now been temporarily covered over with dirt to protect the tiles.


The following shows ditches in the bath area. Water heated by a fireplace would run through the ditches and heat the floors of the bath house.
The Roman baths were designed with hot and cold bath areas. Steps lead down the front side into the baths. The first photo is the cold tub, and the next is the hot tub.



Next are under-the-floor columns.



Next is the artist's conception of the natural spring/worship center, and then the photo after that is the spring today.