Ilchester Mead was a Roman villa situated in the suburbs of Lindinis (Ilchester), the cantonal capital of the Durotriges Lendinienses in central Somerset. Occupied from the later 2nd century into the 4th century AD, it developed from a modest rectangular building into a winged-corridor villa with mosaic-floored rooms, reflecting the prosperity of the Ilchester hinterland in the late Roman period.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of several villas clustered tightly around Lindinis, Ilchester Mead illustrates the dense suburban estate landscape that supplied and surrounded the small town, and is part of the broader flourishing of villa economies in the Somerset levels and Polden fringes during the 3rd–4th centuries. Its proximity to the town suggests close economic and possibly administrative ties with the urban elite of Lindinis.
Excavations in the 1970s, published by Peter Leach (in *The Archaeology of Ilchester*, 1982, and subsequent volumes), revealed a multi-phase stone building with hypocausts, painted wall plaster, tesselated and mosaic pavements, and associated outbuildings, along with finds indicating mixed agricultural activity. Late Roman burials were also recorded in the vicinity, consistent with the typical end-of-life sequence seen at other Somerset villas such as nearby Ilchester Mead's neighbour at Sock D
Ilchester Mead was a Roman villa situated in the suburbs of Lindinis (Ilchester), the cantonal capital of the Durotriges Lendinienses in central Somerset. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Ilchester Mead is classified as a Roman villa — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Lindinis (0.1 km), Northover House, late Roman cemetery (0.3 km), Catsgore (3.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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