Monument record 0040001000 - LATIMER VILLA

EARLY EXCAVATIONS AT LATIMER VILLA. FOUND BY WORKMEN 1834, WITH TESSERAE, POTTERY,COINS & 4 BURIALS? SEE :001, FURTHER WORK IN 1863 & EXCAVATIONS BY REV BURGESS, 1864, OF VILLA BUILDING PUBLISHED (B1-2).
FINDS LOST. EXCAVATIONS 1910-1912 BY MORAY WILLIAMS UNPUBLISHED (B1,B5,B12).
FINDS AT BCM (B3).
A-LEVEL RESEARCH PROJECT (B15).




[SU 99769853] Roman Villa (Remains of) [G.S.] (B26).

Roman villa partly underlying Dell Farm and the road to Chesham ... found in 1834, partly excavated in 1863-4, and again more carefully in 1909. It was plainly a fairly large house, probably of the courtyard type; the central part, now excavated ... contained a corridor in two divisions, with some six or seven rooms on the SE; traces of an east wing have been noted, and a west wing probably lay under and beyond the road. The floors had both patterned and plain tesselated pavements and some of the walls were decorated with coloured fresco. Many small objects were found, but only four 3rd and 4th century coins. Plan of the villa supplied by Messrs W. Calcott Stokes and A.M. Williams, the excavators of 1909 (B5)

Report of the 1863-4 excavations and circumstances of the 1834 discovery of the site. The finds included a few pieces of Caistor and Samian Ware; one of the coins was a British imitation of a Tetricus. The original discovery in 1834 was accompanied by the unearthing (a few yards to the NW of the villa site where it is cut through by the road) of four human skeletons with earthen urns or vessels and coins deposited by the skulls. The urns were broken and the pieces lost. (B2)

Visited early 1950. Completely overgrown; no signs of footings (B27).

Full report with reference to auth. 4 (B28).

Bucks County Museum, Aylesbury. Aquisitions 1945-6 include "Material from Roman villa at Latimer, tiles, tesserae, coins, tweezers etc. - presented by Lord Chesham." (B29).

These aquisitions are on exhibition at the County Museum, Aylesbury (B30).

BU 21 Listed as the site of a Roman villa (B31, B9, B32)

NRHE Insert 1999, Update 2006 (B33).