Lufton Roman Villa

Lufton Roman Villa was excavated by the late Leonard Hayward F.S.A. and the Yeovil Archaeological and Local History Society between 1946-1952 with further excavations in 1960-1963. These excavations uncovered a a suite of stone built rooms fronted by a corridor with a substantial octagonal bath house at the north-western end. Many of the rooms had mosaic or tesselated floors and several had hypocausts or underfloor heating systems.

Large quantities of fourth century pottery were recovered including coarse Black Burnished cooking wares from Poole Harbour, Dorset and finer table ware from Oxfordshire and the New Forest. These pottery vessels, along with fifteen coins of third-fourth century date, suggest that the Lufton Villa was occupied from about c.AD300-c.AD400+. There were many other finds including fragments of bronze jewellery and Kimmeridge Shale artefacts which are currently displayed in the Museum of South Somerset.

Towards the end of the 'villa's' occupation a profound change in the way the site was used seems to have occurred. Various small walls subdivided rooms and metalworking hearths were placed on top of the fine mosaics. This is known to archaeologists as 'squatter' occupation. However, it probably implies that this previously high status building was being utilised for more mundane agricultural and domestic processes. At what date these changes occurred is unknown but the last decades of the fourth or the first decades of the fifth century AD seem likely.

Although the Roman building at Lufton has been referred to as a villa this may not be strictly true. The term Roman 'villa' is used by archaeologists to describe a high status farm house. It has been suggested by Lufton might actually be a temple or even a Christian baptistry.

Want to learn more about Lufton? Take a look at the excavation reports:

L. Hayward (1952)    'The Roman Villa at Lufton, near Yeovil'. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society 97, 91-112

L. Hayward (1972    'The Roman Villa at Lufton, near Yeovil'. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society 116, 59-77

This page was created by James Gerrard