The North Wraxall villa, situated on the southern Cotswold dip-slope in northwest Wiltshire, was a substantial courtyard villa occupied from the later 2nd century through the 4th century AD, with evidence of activity continuing into the early post-Roman period. It developed from a simpler winged-corridor plan into a more elaborate complex with bath suite, ranges around a yard, and associated outbuildings, characteristic of the prosperous villa landscape between Bath (Aquae Sulis) and Cirencester (Corinium).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The villa lies within the densely villa-rich hinterland of Corinium and within easy reach of the Fosse Way, reflecting the agricultural wealth of the region in the later Roman period. It is particularly notable for evidence of violent destruction and late/sub-Roman use, including human remains apparently deposited in a well, suggesting a troubled end to the site.
The site was excavated in 1859 by G. Poulett Scrope, who recorded mosaics, a bath block with hypocausts, painted wall plaster, coins, and a stone-lined well at the bottom of which lay disarticulated human skeletons together with iron objects and structural debris, interpreted as evidence of late Roman destruction. More recent geophysical survey and reassessment have refined the plan, but the 19th-century investigation remains the principal source and its records are limited by the standards of the day.
The North Wraxall villa, situated on the southern Cotswold dip-slope in northwest Wiltshire, was a substantial courtyard villa occupied from the later 2nd century through the 4th century AD, with evidence of activity continuing into the early post-Roman period. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
North Wraxall 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 Romano-British temple, Iron Age ditches, earthwork enclosure and associated buildings 240m and 370m north of Fosse Barn (1.5 km), Nettleton (2.7 km), Colerne (5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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