The Roman villa north of Limnerslease, near Compton in Surrey, lies in the rolling country south of the Hog's Back ridge and the line of the Roman road from London to Winchester. It appears to have been a modest rural establishment of the type common in the Surrey/north Hampshire downland, likely occupied between the later 1st and 3rd or 4th centuries AD, functioning as the residence and farm centre of a local agricultural estate rather than as a high-status courtyard villa.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site forms part of the dispersed pattern of small to middling villas exploiting the chalk and greensand soils south of the Thames basin, supplying grain and livestock to nearby markets such as Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) and Londinium. It is not individually prominent in the literature, but it contributes to the picture of relatively dense Romanised rural settlement along the Hog's Back corridor.
Very little is published on this specific site; it is recorded in the Surrey HER on the basis of building debris, tile, and pottery scatters indicating a masonry structure, but no large-scale modern excavation appears to have been undertaken. Without further fieldwork, the plan, dating, and economic basis of the villa remain essentially unknown.
The Roman villa north of Limnerslease, near Compton in Surrey, lies in the rolling country south of the Hog's Back ridge and the line of the Roman road from London to Winchester. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman villa N of Limnerslease, Down Lane 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 Wanborough (2.6 km), Romano-Celtic temple complex 385m west of Long Common (4 km), Worplesdon (6.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Roman villa N of Limnerslease, Down Lane