DigVentures: The ‘uniquely British’ style of this Earth Trust Roman Villa building
This article was written by our archeaology partners DigVentures and originally published on their blog.
Picture a Romano-British villa and what do you see? Probably a winged, corridor, or courtyard villa with columns along its front. But there is another building style which is much less familiar to most; the basilica or aisled hall style. Unlike other building styles, this one was largely unique to Roman Britain. And it’s exactly what our crowdfunded dig at Earth Trust has revealed…
When DigVentures discovered the remains of a previously unknown Roman villa during excavations next to the Earth Trust visitor centre, at the foot of Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire, it began to reveal the story of a Romano-British family who lived and worked the land in the 3rd-4th centuries AD. From Roman kitchen utensils to the arrival of the first pet dogs in Roman Britain, these discoveries have given us a glimpse into an everyday family home.
As well as hundreds of fascinating artefacts, the excavation also revealed the edge of a substantial building measuring at least 30 metres long, 15 metres wide, with a single row of 9 columns along its length.
In 2024, 265 adults and children joined us on a crowdfunded excavation to find out more about this impressive building. Together, we revealed that instead of a single row of columns on the outside (like you’d see on a classic villa-style building), this building had a double row of columns on the inside, a bit like a church.
In short, rather than the classic layout that you might imagine with a central courtyard, or wings connected by a colonnade or veranda, this was a very different type of construction.
Known as basilica or ‘aisled hall’ style, this type of building is widely thought to be a largely Romano-British phenomenon, with little evidence for them in the rest of the Roman Empire. Although they’re less familiar to most people, they are just as fascinating…
Aerial photograph of excavations at Earth Trust Roman Villa in 2024, with archaeologists and crowdfunders in the position of columns. Nine columns are visible in the first row, with two exposed in the second row – the rest are still waiting to be unearthed. Credit: DigVentures
What is a villa?
In Roman Britain, a villa was far more than just a fancy house. The term villa really refers to the large rural estates run by the Romanised British elite. Each estate usually contained a complex of buildings which served as social and economic hub for a community that might include multiple generations or branches of a family, their workers, servants, and probably slaves. As well as the main house or residence, this would include ancillary buildings (like bathhouses, shrines, and housing for workers), agricultural buildings (like barns, granaries, and stalls), and even industrial structures (like workshops, kilns, or corn driers).
These estates were strategically placed, usually within ten miles of a major urban centre, allowing their owners to remain connected with civic life. The highest concentration are found in the fertile and well-connected southeastern lowlands, particularly in Kent and Sussex. Well connected by rivers and sea-crossings, they benefited from trade with the continent, and flourished during their peak period in the early 4th century AD.
In total, archaeologists estimate that there were around 2,000 Roman villas across Britain, and that they accounted for just 1% of all settlements at the time. Many were built directly on the sites of earlier Iron Age farmsteads, with the majority of owners being Romano-British elites, rather than Roman officials from the continent.
While villas include many different types of building, the main house falls into three main styles; corridor, winged, and courtyard-style. With their external colonnades, they are what most people imagine. But there is a fourth style that was also used, sometimes for the main house and sometimes for other important buildings within the complec: the basilica or aisled hall style.
While it is much less well-know to most people, it is just as interesting, and their construction is widely thought to be a largely Romano-British phenomenon.
Understanding the Basilica or ‘Aisled Hall’ style
Reconstruction of the facade on the aisled hall at Meonstoke Roman Villa. Credit: Anthony King 1996.
While winged, corridor, and courtyard style buildings typically have external columns forming a veranda or colonnade, aisled halls featured a double row of internal columns, much like a church.
Similar to both earlier Iron Age and later Saxon halls, this design allowed for impressive roof spans, creating highly versatile, multi-functional spaces.
Many villa-owning families in Roman Britain used aisled hall architecture for their main residence. In some cases, this was a practical adaptation, where the aisled hall served as an ‘all-in-one’ building that combined living quarters, workshops, and storage into one versatile, multi-purpose space where all the essential activities could take place under one roof.
Others were grand houses with all the luxuries that you’d usually associate with courtyard villas, including hypocaust-heated rooms, mosaic floors, and even clerestory lighting – an architectural feature that allowed natural light to illuminate the interior while also regulating temperature.
(Left) Reconstruction of Stroud Roman Villa, with internal columns shown in the cutaway. Source: Roman Farming, by East Meon History Society. (Right) Floor plan of Stroud Roman Villa. Source: Stroud Roman Villa Excavation Report.
Meanwhile, other Romano-British families used it for constructing other villa buildings, such as barns or workshop facilities. Again, some could be plain and functional, but others could be extremely elaborate; some even had decorative facades that were clearly designed to show off the owner’s wealth and status.
Whether or not they served as the main residence, these were important buildings within the Romano-British villa, playing crucial role in Britain’s agricultural economy during the Roman period.
Barn, all-in-one home, or luxury house?
At Little Hay Roman Villa (Derbyshire), the aisled barn served as a working space, with two rooms at one end. At Sparsholt Roman Villa, the aisled barn was used as the primary residence. Here, the earliest known house was a simple aisled barn without any evidence that the internal space was separated into rooms. However, by 200 AD had been replaced by a more upscale version including living rooms and an internal bath suite, before a separate winged corridor house was added in the 4th century.
The winged-corridor villa and aisled building at Barcombe Roman Villa c. AD 250. Credit: Andy Gammon. Source: Researchgate.
At Stroud Roman Villa (Gloucestershire), the owners also built their main residence in the aisled hall style. With at least 9 rooms (two of which were heated by a hypocaust system), tessellated red floors, and a patterned mosaic, this one was much more luxurious. Aside from the main aisled hall-style building, this villa complex also held a 13-room bathhouse, shrine, stalls, and a separate granary.
Likewise, the main residence at Abbey Roman Villa (Kent) was also built in the aisled barn style, with clerestory lighting, a bath house complex with underfloor heating, and opus siginium flooring.
But perhaps the most elaborate of them all comes from Meonstoke Roman Villa (Hampshire). Surprisingly, this one wasn’t used as a home, and yet it was built with such an elaborate façade that it is now preserved and on display at the British Museum. Clearly, the owners had decided that the construction of such an ostentatious aisled barn was an appropriate way to signal their wealth and status.
At the time, Britain was a major exporter of food for the Roman Empire in Europe and with villas at their peak in the 4th century, the adaptation of these large aisled barn-style buildings may hint towards the source of that wealth; grain.
A ‘posh’ Samian bowl from the excavations at Earth Trust. It is stamped with the name Lezoux – a pottery in France – showing that it had been imported. Credit: DigVentures.
The discoveries at Earth Trust Roman Villa so far
So far, less than half of this building has been unearthed, but the sheer number of domestic items – from cooking pots to bone needles – found within and around the building suggests that it probably was occupied. But also raises another possibility: could the villa have included another, even fancier house like at Sparsholt?
All of these discoveries have yielded fascinating insights into daily life, including finds like a tiny Roman pet dog, a child’s bracelet, hobnail boots, as well as signs of agricultural and industrial activity, including several corn driers and evidence that estate may have produced its own beer. It’s also clear that this villa was built directly ontop of an Iron Age settlement, with traces of Iron Age roundhouses clearly visible below it.
But there is plenty left to discover. Can we determine the full floorplan of this unique villa building and establish any further details about it? Did it have separate rooms for different functions? What about additional buildings, such as a bath house, shrine, kiln – or even another residence altogether? And what more can we learn about the Romano-British family who lived and worked here, and their day-to-day life in Roman Oxfordshire?
You can help by crowdfunding the excavation to dig alongside our archaeologists or support the research from home.