Wanstead Roman Villa was a Roman villa on an unknown site in what is now Wanstead Park. Archaeological excavations carried out in 1985 indicated a Roman presence here from the 1st to the 5th century AD, but did not locate any specific site of a Roman villa.
"... from north to south ... 20 feet, and from east to west about 16; that it was composed of small square brick tesserae of different sizes and colours, as black, white, red, &c., of all which I have specimens; that there was a border about a foot broad went, round it, Composed of red dice, about ¾ of an inch square, within which were severall ornaments, and in the middle the figure of a man riding upon some beast and holding something in his hands; but, as he opened it onely in a hurry, and in different places, he was able to give no bettor account of it."
== Historical context of the Roman antiquities at Wanstead ==
The local British tribes of (what became) Essex before the Claudian Roman invasion of 43CE were the Trinobantes and the Catuvellauni, with the Catuvellauni the largest tribe in Britain and the more dominant in the area of Wanstead at the time of the Claudian invasion, with their capital at Colchester.
In early June 43CE a Roman force of 45,000 (four 5,000-man Legions and 25,000 auxiliaries) led in part by the future Emperor Vespasian had met an army of 150,000 Britons, under the Catuvellauni kings Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus, on the River Medway, Kent, as recorded by Cassius Dio. The Britons were defeated in a two-day battle, and then again shortly afterwards on the Thames. Togodumnus was killed and Caratacus withdrew to continue resistance elsewhere in Britain.
Having crossed the Thames the Romans established a fort at Camulodonum (Colchester) which became connected to Londinium (London) by the Roman road running south of Wanstead, immediately south passing through Forest Gate, on through Ilford and Romford (Roman Durolitum at Gallows Corner), to Chelmsford and Colchester - Roman Road 3 (RR3).
Suetonius, writing around AD 120, recorded a prominent role played by one commander, Titus Flavius Vespasianus (later the emperor Vespasian), with Legio II Augusta. As one of the four conquering legions Vespasian‘s troops may have constructed all or part of the Roman road to Camulodunum.
A series of roads developed out from Londinium between 43CE and 68CE, with RR3 leaving the north-east corner of the capital through the Roman gate at Aldgate (known as the Old Gate to the later Saxons), then following the line of what is now Whitechapel Road through to Camulodunum (Colchester) and Venta Icenorum (Norwich), being recorded by the Romans as both Iter V and Iter IX in the Antonine Itinerary.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Wanstead Roman Villa was a Roman villa on an unknown site in what is now Wanstead Park. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Wanstead 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 Durolitum (3.2 km), Shadwell Roman Bathhouse (9.7 km), Roman villa 300m south of Long Shaw (9.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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