The Lower Woods site comprises the remains of a Romano-British villa with an associated bathhouse, situated in ancient woodland on the southern Cotswold fringe in South Gloucestershire. Like other villas in this region, it most likely flourished between the later 2nd and 4th centuries AD, the period of peak villa development in the Cotswolds, serving as the residence and estate centre of a wealthy rural landowner.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The villa lies within a densely settled villa landscape between Cirencester (Corinium Dobunnorum) and the lower Severn, an area whose agricultural surplus underpinned one of the wealthiest civilian zones of Roman Britain. Its bathhouse reflects the adoption of Roman bathing culture by the rural elite of the Dobunni, comparable to nearby villas such as Frocester, Woodchester and Kings Weston.
Little has been published from formal excavation at this specific site; the remains are known principally from surface evidence, earthworks and finds of building material (tile, stone rubble, possibly hypocaust fragments) within Lower Woods, the survival of which is partly owed to the site's continuous woodland cover. Without targeted excavation, the plan, phasing and full extent of the villa and bathhouse remain undefined.
The Lower Woods site comprises the remains of a Romano-British villa with an associated bathhouse, situated in ancient woodland on the southern Cotswold fringe in South Gloucestershire. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a bath house site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman villa and bathhouse remains in Lower Woods, 115m north west of Lower Woods Lodge is classified as a Roman bath house — 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 remains 290m south east of Springfield Farm (2.9 km), Wickwar Roman small town 680m WNW of Hall End Farm (3.9 km), Wortley Roman villa (4.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Roman villa and bathhouse remains in Lower Woods, 115m north west of Lower Woods Lodge