The Roman Villa at Minster-in-Thanet. Part 9: An Architectural Reconstruction

THE ROMAN VILLA AT MINSTER-IN-THANE T. PART 9: A N ARCHITECT URAL RECONSTRUCTION HOWARD AUSTIN JONES With the basic structural and dating evidence for the Minster Roman villa complex now published, 1 an opportunity is provided to review the evidence for the overall layout ofthis villa in architectural rather than purely archaeological terms. TI1e original appearance of any Romano-British villa is not knovvn for certain. Recent discoveries at Redlands Farm, Northamptonshire2 and Meonstoke in Hampshire3 have provided a little more information about their superstructures and upper walls and further archaeological evidence from elsewhere will doubtless be uncovered in due course. Ancient literature contains some references to the construction and use of villas, but generally comparisons have to be drawn with the physical remains of better preserved villas in Italy4 or from surviving fragments of wall-paintings and mosaics.5 However fanciful some of the latter may be they at least give some indication of the contemporary surroundings in which the artist was working. Any meaningful attempt at reconstruction must of course begin with a careful and exact study of every detail of the remains, as they are and not as they might be thought or would be wished to be. The relative chronology, preferably dated, of any alterations needs to be ascertained, since any attempted reconstruction must commence with the original structure, as that will have determined the nature of any later developments. The accuracy of a reconstruction must necessarily become less the further it rises from the ground. Certain facts lead to probabilities, probabilities to possibilities and possibilities to educated guesswork. However, when complete, the entire reconstmction must at least be both plausible in fonn and feasible structurally. With these general comments in mind the remains excavated at Minster may now be considered. The villa setting As noted in the 5th excavation report, the Roman villa at Minster '... stood on a gentle slope at an elevation of 16-17m AOD and was constructed on an eastwest axis, facing downhill to the south. This arrangement would have provided its residents with panoramic views across the nearby Wantsum Channel ... '. Several of the other dozen or so probable Roman villas on Thanet would seem also to have been sited to take advantage of sea views, a characteristic common of the period,6 either by being positioned along the coast, or on the higher ground in the centre 189 '° 0 t' ( 0 ------- ,,1:s.------ -, Margate "'- o-6 Westgate ----􀀋/ - -- ,,,, e· h" ..t= -- -- --- f:::i../ ', 1IC mi;✓.-- 0 .,,.. ', --- 0 / ' 0 __ ..-- /./ ', A.,,.,,... ,.f;:, / c:s:--" " li,I / / / 0 ' 0 0 0 ® .6,. building or possible villa 0 settlement -- probable road - - - - possible road or track Fig. 1 Location of Minster Roman villa. 0 0 0 0 Broadstairs ROMAN VILLA, MINSTER-IN-TIIANET: PT 9: AN ARCHITECTURAL RECONSTRUCTION of the island. In the case of Minster, the villa was sited just below the crest of the slope, presumably to avoid direct northerly winds, and also it seems to make use of the springs that still exist to provide a supply of fresh water. l11e overall layout of the Roman villa at Minster was of some architectural pretension. The villa proper (Building 1) was sited at the northern end of a large walled enclosure, with a small detached bath-house (Building 3) immediately adjacent to its south-west. Two individual pavilions (Buildings 4 and 6), probably to accommodate estate workers or lesser members of the family, were added at some later date against the east and west ends respectively to the south of the large walled enclosure. Whether part of the original design or not, this arrangement, by providing a symmetrical visual framework to the main house (Building 1) when seen from the south, was evidently deliberate. Coincidentally or not, the north wall of the large walled enclosure ran parallel to and pretty nearly 30 Roman actus (1065m) away from the present A253, which is considered to be the line of a Roman road7 running east-west across Thanet - effectively a continuation of the road through Upstreet to Canterbury (Margary 11) (Fig. 1). l11e west wall of the enclosure was parallel to and 10 actus (355111) from the north-south B2048 (Tothill Street), which crosses the A253 at right-angles and continues southwards via Marsh Farm Road down to the edge of the Wantsum channel, where once there was a ferry. 8 Whether the latter also represents the line of a Roman road is moot, but it is interesting that it itself lies 20 actus east of an exactly parallel line today represented by the parish boundary that runs along Chipman 's Way and extends northwards beyond it. Suggestions that the present Monkton Road, which mns approximately east-west and is aligned exactly on the front of the villa, was originally the access road to the villa could not be confinned by excavation: perhaps it and the rectangle ofroads that now surround the villa site are rather to be associated with the early medieval abbey. The only original entrance found into the villa enclosure was by means of a later gateway positioned in the centre of the south wall. Presumably there would have been some sort of trackway connecting it to the road network, but whether or not this ran westwards to Marsh Farm Road remains unknown. Although excavation could not confirm the existence of this south entrance during the earlier phases of the villa, the fact that an axis drawn north-south through its centre passes exactly through the middle of the entrance porch to the villa and the centre of the enclosure wall beyond to the north, suggests that it was. The large walled enclosure The (longer) east and (shorter) south walls of the large walled enclosure were not parallel to the west and east walls, forming a trapezoid rather than a rectangle with tl1e longer of the shorter east-west walls to the south (Fig. 2). The south-west angle was a true 90°, as was the north-west angle, but about 30m along, the wall off the latter veered northwards by 3°- 4° . The south-east comer then compensated for this by meeting the south wall at an angle of 87° . The angle between the errant part of the north wall and the inclined east wall is also 90° . Notwithstanding the symmetry of both enclosure and villa about the north-south axis noted above, all this suggests a mistake in the setting-out of the enclosure than its being a deliberate 191 HOWARD AUSTIN JONES wtll-byl 􀀁 I I ul