Spoonley Wood villa, situated in a secluded valley in the Cotswolds near Sudeley (Winchcombe, Gloucestershire), was a substantial courtyard villa of the type characteristic of this prosperous region. Occupation appears to span the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, with the villa reaching its peak development in the later 3rd and 4th centuries, when the main range was elaborated with mosaics and a probable bath suite.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The villa lies within the densest concentration of wealthy late-Roman villas in Britain, clustered around Cirencester (Corinium), the civitas capital of the Dobunni, and reflects the agricultural wealth generated on the Cotswold limestone uplands. The presence of marble statuary — including a notable figure of Bacchus recovered at the site — points to a proprietor of considerable means and cultivated tastes, comparable to neighbouring villas such as Chedworth and Witcombe.
Excavations in 1882 by the antiquary James Farrer revealed a winged corridor villa with mosaic pavements, painted wall plaster, hypocausts, and a separate aisled "basilican" outbuilding interpreted variously as a granary, byre, or workers' hall. A lead coffin containing an inhumation was also found, and the marble Bacchus is now in the British Museum; however, the Victorian excavation records are limited by modern standards and no large-scale modern re
Spoonley Wood villa, situated in a secluded valley in the Cotswolds near Sudeley (Winchcombe, Gloucestershire), was a substantial courtyard villa of the type characteristic of this prosperous region. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Spoonley 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 Wadfield Roman villa (2.2 km), Romano-British villa 170m south west of Winchcombe School, Greet Road (4.3 km), Wycomb (4.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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