Mansfield Woodhouse is the site of a Romano-British villa located on the northern edge of the modern town in Nottinghamshire, on the western fringe of the Sherwood Sandstone country. It was a modest courtyard villa of likely 2nd- to 4th-century date, representing one of the more northerly civilian villa establishments in the East Midlands, on the periphery of the more densely villa-occupied Trent valley.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site marks the northward limit of the villa economy in this part of Britannia, lying well behind the military zone but in a relatively marginal agricultural landscape, suggesting estate exploitation of mixed farming and possibly woodland resources in what later became Sherwood Forest. Its existence indicates the penetration of Romanised rural lifestyles into the territory of the Corieltavi well north of the main Fosse Way villa belt.
The villa was first investigated in the late 18th century (1786–87) by Hayman Rooke, who recorded two buildings with hypocausts, tessellated and mosaic pavements, painted wall plaster, and associated finds including coins and pottery; a bathhouse range was among the structures identified. Modern excavation has been limited, and much of what is known still depends on Rooke's antiquarian plans and reports, supplemented by later observations and stray finds.
Mansfield Woodhouse is the site of a Romano-British villa located on the northern edge of the modern town in Nottinghamshire, on the western fringe of the Sherwood Sandstone country. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Mansfield Woodhouse 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 Roman villa ESE of Northfield House (2.5 km), Roman camp 470m south of Carr Banks Farm (12.1 km), Two Roman camps 350m north east of Lodge Farm (14.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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