The Eccles villa, situated in the Medway valley in Kent, was an unusually large and early Romano-British villa, established in the mid-1st century AD (c. AD 55–65) and occupied through to the late 4th century. Its early phase included a substantial winged corridor building with a bath suite and a large ornamental pool, marking it out as one of the most architecturally precocious villas in Britain, comparable in date to Fishbourne and Eastry.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The very early construction, sophisticated bath house, painted wall plaster and possible connection to tile production in the Medway valley suggest a wealthy proprietor — perhaps a Romanised Briton of the Cantiaci or an incoming continental owner — exploiting the agricultural and industrial potential of the Medway corridor. The site is also notable for the superimposed early Anglo-Saxon cemetery, indicating reuse or continuity of the location into the 5th–7th centuries.
Excavations directed by Alec Detsicas for the Kent Archaeological Society between 1962 and 1976 revealed successive villa phases, an elaborate bath house, tessellated and mosaic floors, painted plaster, and an associated cemetery of inhumations and cremations including Anglo-Saxon burials with grave goods. The findings were published in interim reports in Archaeologia Cantiana, though a full final excavation report has never appeared, leaving aspects of the stratigraphy and ph
The Eccles villa, situated in the Medway valley in Kent, was an unusually large and early Romano-British villa, established in the mid-1st century AD (c. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Romano-British villa, Anglo-Saxon cemetery and associated remains at Eccles 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 Eccles (0.7 km), Roman villa 200m north of church (2.1 km), Part of an Iron Age enclosure and a minor Roman villa 128m SSE of the Church of St James (4.1 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 Romano-British villa, Anglo-Saxon cemetery and associated remains at Eccles