The site of the Roman villa at Woodchester

Helena and I went to town for a coffee this morning, but were a bit disappointed with the current state of an old favourite venue. We returned to her house sit venue in North Woodchester and I cooked some scrambled eggs to accompany some smoked salmon and toast, which slipped down very well. 

After eating we headed down the hillside for a walk to the nearby ruined church and graveyard of old Woodchester.  The church was moved to a new site half a mile away in the 1880s. The reason was probably that this old church had been built on the site of a 2nd century Roman villa which had been discovered in 1793 when digging by Samuel Lysons revealed a magnificent mosaic pavement of a Roman villa.  It is now regarded as one of the finest mosaics ever found north of the Alps and is 47 feet square.  It was uncovered and then reburied several times and finally covered over again in the 1970s after several hundred thousand people came to see its last exposure.  A full size replica was made which is now in private hands some where.  It isn't thought that it will be opened again in the foreseeable future.

You can see the flat grassy area above one corner of the mosaic next to these grave stones to the left of the picture. The villa extended in the direction of view for long way and it was almost certainly the home of the Roman Governor of this region of their empire, being nearly equidistant between three important Roman centres: Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath.

Now it is a quiet and beautiful place to visit with birds singing, masses of primroses covering parts of the graveyard and next to the area of raised beds of the vegetable garden of the current 'big' house just beyond the old church ruins.  There are ponds fed by springs which would have been vital to the Romans and woodland and pastures surrounding the whole area.  All in all a fine place to build your country home.

Helena has posted her lovely view of the primroses here