INTRODUCTION
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 19681
SEVENTH INTERIM REPORT
By A. P. DETSIOAS, M.A., F.S.A.
E:XOAVATIONS were undertaken by the Eccles Excavation Committee
for a seventh season, beginning in early April and concluding at the
end of October 1968, at the site of the Romano-Bdtish villa at Rowe
Place Farm, Eccles, in the parish of Aylesford (N.G.R. TQ 722605;
O.S. 6-inch Sheet TQ 76 SW). A continuous fortnight's work was also
carried out in August, during which period a training course in archreology
was based on the site.
Permission to continue with this work wa.s again readily granted
by the landowners, Messrs. Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers
Limited and the Reed Paper Group Limited. I am greatly in the debt
of the tenant farmers, Messrs. A. A. and A. C. Southwell, for welcoming
us once more on their land and easing the burdens of our work by their
unstinted kindness.
Financial assistance for this work was given by an anonymous
donor, the Kent Archreologioal Society, the Society of Antiquaries of
London, the Haverfield Bequest of the University of Oxford, and other
public contributors.
The major burden of the actual work fell upon many volunteers,
amongst them several members of the Lower Medway Archreological
Research Group, without whose help this exca.vation would have been
impossible and whom space considerations only preclude from individual
mention. I must, however, make an exception in the case of the
following to whom I am especially grateful for their sustained support
throughout the season's work: Mrs. M. E. Davies, B.A.; Mis& M. B. V.
Webster; and Messrs. I. J. Bissett, R. W. Chapman, A. C. Harrison,
B.A., F.S.A., T. Hetherington, T. Ithell, B.Eng., W. A. Knowles,
R. Lowson, C. E. J. Martin and P. Thornhill, B . .A. I am also particularly
indebted to Mr. I. J. Bissett, for continuing to draw the pottery;
Miss D. Charlesworth, M.A., F.S.A., for reporting on the glass;
Mr. R. G. Foard, for the monochrome site-photography and the prints
1 Arch. Oant., lxxviii (1963), 125--41; lxxix (1964), 121-85; lx:i..-x (1965), 69-91;
hc:iod (1966), 44-52; lxxxii (1967), 162-78; lxxxiii (1968), 39-48. Professor S. S.
Frere, M.A., F.S.A., has kindly ren.d this report i n draft form and has made several
suggestions for its improvement and, in acknowledging my indebtedness, I should
!llso like to place on record my personal appreciation for his praotical support and
lllterest throughout the several yeats of this excavation.
93
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1968
illustrating this report; Mr. A. C. Harrison, B.A., F .S.A., for occasionally
acting in my place; Mrs. K. F. Hartley, B.A., for reporting on the
mortaria; Dr. J. P. C. Kent, B.A., Ph.D., F.S.A., for identifying the
coins; and Mr. R. P. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., for reacting and reporting
on the graffiti. Fina.Uy, I must place on record my appreciatfon to
my wife for the initial processing of the pottery.
THE Exe.av A TION
This season's work was planned to continue the examination of the
villa's living quarters beyond the points reached in 1967.
Period I, ? to A .D. 43: Ditch I
A further trench was cut across the line of this ditch north-ea.'!t of
the area explored in 19672 but, apart from confirming the alignment
of this ditch in this pa.rt of the site, no fresh evidence was forthcoming
nor did it prove possible to carry out more extensive work in this area.
Periocl-s II-III, to c . .A.D. 65: Ditches IV-VI
To these periods are tentatively assigned for the time being three
rectilinear ditches found at the very end of the season's work. As these
ditches are built over by the fir&t house, they are clearly earlier than
Period IV; this is independently supported by the few sherds found in
Ditch VI. On the other hand, it must be noted that no pottery was
recovered in either of the other two ditches. However, as Ditch IV
runs approximately parallel to Ditch VI, into which runs Ditch V,
it is clear that Ditches IV and V cannot have been cut much later than
Ditch VI, even if it can eventually be shown. that all three are not
strictly contemporary.
Ditch IV was a.ppro:rimately 2 ft. 6 in. deep and about 3 ft. wide,
if its sides are projected to th top of the Romano-British ploughsoil;
it has been traced so far for some 74 ft. and its profile is roughly
V-shaped. Ditch Vis rather wider (3 ft.), but of the same depth and
outline; so far only some 19 ft. of its course have been examined,
from its junction with Ditch VI towards the eastern part of the site.
Ditch VI is by far the largest of the three, with a width and depth of
8 ft. and 3 ft. 9 in. respectively; it is U-shaped in outline a.nd its course
has been traced for about 70 ft. What distinguishes these ditches is
that Ditches IV and V are cut mainly through the Romano-British
ploughsoil and barely penetrate the subsoil, hence their filling contained
a very smaJl proportion of Gault Clay, whereas Ditch VI is cut well
into the subsoil and its filling consisted mainly of re-deposited clay
subsoil over some silt accumulation. Clearly the subsoil upcast from
this ditch must have been piled up on its western (1 outer) lip and later
a Arch. Ocmt., lXJCXii (1967), fig. l; lxxxiii (1968), 40.
94
EXCAVATIONS AT ECOLE$, 1068
used to backfill the ditch when the site was levelled for the purpose of
building the earliest villa. The function of these ditches is at present
uncertain though, as Ditch V runs into Ditch VI, it is safest to assume
that they were intended for drainage.8
Periods III-IV, c. A.D. 55-120
Examination to the north-east of the villa's ma.in range of rooms
has shown that some sort of a building, perhaps a small outhouse,
was located in this area before the building of the rear corridor; all
that survived of this presumed structure is a short length of wall,
built of ragstone and yellow mortar and about l ft. 6 in. wide, running
approximately parallel with the villa and turning to south-west. The
whole area to north-east of the outer wall of the rear corridor showed
evidence for a compacted layer of yellow mortar, cut immediately
outside the wall by the trench of the water-pipeline passing under Rooms
86 and 88, which is more likely to be the result of mixing mortar
at the time of the building of the corridor rather than a floor, as it
rests directly upon the Romano-British ploughsoil without any make-up
layers beneath it; this mortar layer was recorded as far as the southeast
limit of the length of wall mentioned above and covered some
loose ragstone laid in a shallow trench which may belong to foundations
extending that wall towards the south-east.
Two fresh trenches were out in the area of Room 94 which was partly
explored in 1967.4 One of these established the line of the south-west
wall of this feature, and the other was out astride both walls so as to
give a continuous section. AB a result, it is now known that this feature
was 12 ft. 9 in. wide; its full length is not yet traced, 34 ft. 3 in. only
have so far been examined. As previously reoorded,4 the whole feature
had been methodically demolished: its north-east wall had been completely
removed, and only the cutting of its construction trench into the
sub-soil indicated where it had been built; the south-west wall had fared
rather better as some loose foundation material survived in situ
and suggested that the demolition had been carried out from a northeasterly
direction. No traces whatever of the floor of this feature were
preserved in these new trenches; instead demolition had penetrated
1 ft. 9 in. deeper than the level thought last year6 to be that of the
floor, and the back-filling consisted of alternating layers of building
debris and subsoil, the latter clearly deriving from construction
trenches dug elsewhere on the site at the time of the demolition.
The depth of this back-filling suggests that the floor of Room 94 must
·
3 This ditch seems to run practically parallel with a similar reotilinear ditch
explored in previous years at the western limit of the site; cf. Arch. Oant., lxxxii
(1967}, fig. 11 and pp. 163-4.
4 Arch. Oant., lxxxiii (1968), 40-1.
6 Ibid., 40.
95
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1968
have been lower than 4 ft. 6 in. from the present surface; it is scarcely
deep enough to indicate the presence of a cellar.
On this basis, what was thought in 1967 to be the floor-level could be
tentatively re-interpreted as the top of the uppermost of a number of
steps such as would be found inside a bath. Support for this suggestion
can be found not only in the fact that the debris filling in the 1967
trench dropped below the opus signinum then considered as the bathfloor
but also, and much more to the point, in the opus signinum
rendering on the inner surface of the north-west wall, which had
survived, and the painted wall-plaster debris present in the backfilling,
which would have rendered the wall above the opus 8igninum,
i.e. above the water level. The alternative possibility that the room
was first robbed of its materials and then excavation continued at
depth for the purpose of obtaining clay can be discounted on the grounds
that clay could be had more easily elsewhere and that it formed
much of the back-filling. Furthermore, the subsoil material used to
back-fill this feature argues that the area occupied by it was being
levelled.
Immediately beyond the line of the north-east wall in the larger
of the two new trenches was found a layer of whitish mortar deposited
directly upon the subsoil; its full extent is not known but, as it did
not appear in the 1967 trench further to north-west, it is unliltely that
it represents anything more than mortar being mixed at the time of the
construction of Room 94 . .A large part of a small, carinated reeded
bowl, normally datable from Flavian times to the early second century
A.D., was found embedded in this mortar deposit. It seems now clear
that this feature was not built as early as provisionally suggested on
the previous report and that the early-Flavian samian found below
the level of the opus signinum step must be considered as rubbishsurvival.
The function of this long feature is still fa.r from certain, though
the suggestion put forward above that it may have been an open-air
bat,h does fit all the known facts of the excavation. Its pro;ximity
(about 28 ft.) to Room 93, the fronting corridor of the villa, makes it
unlikely that it would have been retained beyond Period IV; it certainly
had been demolished before Period VI a,s the cobbling, extending to
south-east from the outer wall of Room 15, the corridor leading to the
baths of that period, had been carried over the line of the feature's
south-west wall.
Period IV, c. A.D. 65-120
Examination of the central range of rooms in this period of the
villa's occupation continued and two further large rooms were added
to its plan.
96
i---i
I u-7
j
I
i'
i
i
!_ _
__ J
JS
JJ
Periods HNV
!Periods //MV
1-·-·-·-·-·--·-
0
]
PerlodV.Robbed/lnltrred
WJl Period VI
IPerlods H//V,R oilburing 11 ft. by 11 ft. 6 in., provided:the
heat for the channelled hypocaust under Room 95 through a flue,
1 ft. 6 in. in width, in its north-west wall; both partition walls of the
furnace-room were 2 ft. wide and built of ragstone set in yellow mortar.
Examination of their construction trenches, however, confirmed the
observed fact that these two walls were not of contemporary construction;
for not only did the north-west wall of the room look far more
solidly built than the south-east one but also its ragstone and mortar
construction had continued to the very bottom of its bedding trench,
whereas the soμ.th-east wall had been founded on a deposit of loose
ragstone and debris containing painted wall-plaster and mosaic
fragments, as already noted for the partition walls of Rooms 95, 92,
and 103.
Originally, the furnace-room was not floored but the fire had been
laid directly on the subsoil, except for the area directly in front of the
mouth of the flue where amongst the debris filling were found three
fragments of sandstone which have not originated in the Wealden
area; they could have come from the Millstone Grit of South Wales
or the Midlands or, perhaps, even from abroad.lo All these fragments
are slightly altered by heat, and it would thus seem that steps had been
taken to ensure that at least the mouth of the :flue was floored with
durable materials: Kentish ragstone has a calcareous cement which,
turning to calcium oxide on heating, would cause the stone to crumble,
whereas these pieces of sandstone have a siliceous matrix which would
not decay in the heat, of the furnace. Two very worn coins, both of
Tetricus I and Tetrious II, were found embedded in the subsoil within
this furnace.
At a later stage during the life of Room 96 a reconstruction
apparently became imperative because excessive heating of the northwest
wall was beginning to affect it, and a pair of cheeks was constructed
in order to reduce the area of direct contact; that these cheeks were
not part of the original plan is clearly shown by the thin deposit of
soot and ash found below them on top of the subsoil and extending
to the face of the north-west wall. Both cheeks measured 4 ft. by 3 ft.
6 in. and were built of ragstone bonded with clay which had hardened
to a brick consistency as a result of firing in the furnace; at the same
time, tiles were laid o n the subsoil, again sealing some soot and ash
below them, to serve as a floor, though they were very badly cracked and
disturbed in the course of later robbing. The entire area of the furnaceroom
was filled with the usual demolition debris and, above the remains
of the tiled floor, a fairly thick la.yer of ashes and charcoal; this deposit
u I a.m indebted to Mr. I. F. Mercer, of the Institute of Geological Sciences,
and to Dr. R. P. S. Jefferies, B.A., Ph.D., F.G.S., for the identification of these
fragments and useful comments.
102
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1968
yielded a scatter of 65 coins, mainly of fourth-century A.D. date,20
clearly dropped in the course of tending the fire. No direct evidence
survived for an entrance into this room, but it is virtually certain
that this would have been sited through the north-west wall and at
about the east corner of the furnace.
Rooms 96, 97 and 101 occupy the area, as far as examined, of the
earlier Room 104, i.e. the north-eastern section of the villa's corridor
beyond the south-east wall of Room 95 where the tessellated pavements
stopped and yellow mortar was used as flooring material. Though
once again no direct evidence could be secured, owing to the complete
demolition in this area and the robbing of the walls, it is clear that the
partitioning of this corridor here into smaller rooms is not contemporary
with the partitioning of the north-western area of the corridor as the
construction trenches cut for both partition walls of Room 101 are
much shallower than those of the pai-tition walls beyond the furnace.
room.
Room 97 measures 11 ft. 6 in. by 17 ft. 3 in. and Room 10111 ft. 6 in.
by 20 ft. 6 in.; both these rooms were floored with yellow mortar,
about 2-4 in thick, laid on a make-up layer of re-deposited subsoil.21
Room 100, a small apsidal recess opening off the north corner of
Room 101 (Plate III, B), is shown on the plan (Fig. 1) as belonging
to an earlier phase than Rooms 97 and 101; in fact, because robbing
has again removed the evidence, this distinction may not be valid,
and it is more likely that all these three rooms belong to the same
reconstruction of this part of the rear corridor. The apse measured
7 ft. 6 in. in length and had a maximum width of 3 ft. 9 in.; its floor
com,isted· of opus signinum, about 4 in. thick and la.id on successive
make-up layers of loose mortar rubble and building debris over a
foundation course of unmortared ragstone resting on the subsoil.
The junction of the floor and the wall of the apse had been sealed with
a strip of opus signinum quarter-round moulding, which indicates that
the apse probably contained water. The wall of this room had been
built on a foundation of loose ragstone laid on the subsoil below a
layer of yellow mortar rubble and tile debris; immediately above this
deposit were two courses of mortared ragstone and then the wall of
the apse which consisted of coursed bonding-tiles set in yellow mortarfive
of these courses of bonding-tiles survived below the ploughsoil.
The apse had clearly been abutted on the north-east wa.11 of the corridor
and, though the latter had been completely removed, the apse's wall
ao Included in this scatter were coins of Gratian (1), Constantius II (3),
Urbs &ma, (1), Theodora (1), Magnentius (3), Constans (4), an a,ntoninianue of
Ota.cilia Severa., House of Constantine (1), Decentius (1), 'Constantinopolis' {l),
Va.lens (1), nine illegible coins, probably of late-Roman date, and 37 barbarous
FEL TEMP REP .A.RATIO types.
11 See note 7, above.
103
EXCAVATIONS AT ECOLES,.1968
and opus Bigninum quarter'0round moulding were preserved · hi.tact
along the whole course of their abutment on the north-east wall.
Obv:iously, a doorway and, perhaps, a step into the apse must have
existed through the wall at the north corner of Room 101, but robbing
has remo-ved all direct ev:idence.
DATING
Once more all the ev:idenoe recovered .iii. this season of work has
confirmed t,he prov:isional dating sequence proposed .iii. earlier reports.
On the other hand, the recovery .iii. sealed deposits in Rooms 95 and
96 of coins and pottery enables the closing date of Period VII to be
established at about the beg.irining of the fifth century A.D., rather than
the prev:ious suggestion of merely post A.D. 290.
SUMMARY AND Drsouss10N
After seven years' work at this large site, it is now possible to attempt
a tentative summary and evaluation of the history of the villa (Fig. 2).22
The ol'iginal house (Villa I, Period IV, c. A.D. 65-120) consists, at
present, of at least six rooms, three of which were certainly laid with
tessellated floors, ranged behind a fronting corridor; clearly, this is
still only part of the villa's earliest plan, but it now looks probable
that it did not possess any wings and recalls in its essentials town striphouses
and other villas,23 though it is likely to have been larger and was
certainly built earlier t,han most other villas. The bath-house belonging
to this first dwelling-house has already been fully examined and
described;24 both its size and furnishings require a comparable degree
of Romanization in the house itself which should be established when
the whole villa is fully excavated. Villa I and its baths form a substantial
establishment, showing that 'exceptional Romanization was actiye
in this area',25 within a generation of the Roman conquest; the influence
of military baths on the architecture of the Eccles first baths has
already been referred to.20 Apart from the implications that this raises,
the size of the baths is inordinately large for the occupants of the -villa
and their attendants alone; certainly these ba,ths could act as 'some
sort of social focus'27 for the estate workers and, probably, othPrs in
the neighbourhood. Thls, however, implies organized large-scale
farming, i.e. a large farming community, bailiffs, slaves (a, length of
22 The pre-Roman occupation of the site is still incompletely explored.
is E.g. Lockleys, Park Street, Frocester Court, etc.
" Arch. Oant., lxxx (1965), 71-85; for its re1ationship to the villa, ibid,,
lxxxiii (1968), fig. I.
" S. S. Frere, Britannia, 1967, 269-70.
" Arch. Oant., l:xxix (1964), lxxx (1965), 89.
11 S. S. Frere, op. cit., 270.
104
ECCLES ROMAN VILLA
JS J6
J4
JJ
J4
JJ
79
J6
JJ
I
/OZ
III IS
llll r··
,, I. "Ii
' ' ' :::::::::: 1·
- J ,
■■ .. I ;
. . . • l ----------
IV
IS
FIG. 2,
98 99
98
99
/04
98 99
9J
96 97 IOI
98 99
9J
[facep. 104
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1968
chain found in 1965 may be a pointer here), craftsmen, etc., very
early in the life of the province; if so, this should mean that the owner
of this estate was of considerable social importance and wealth.
Only a person of this description, with obvious philo-Roman. leanings,
could wield sufficient influence to be cultivated by the Romans for
their own purposes,28 and possess the wealth needed for the construction
and appointments of the earliest house and baths-there can have been
very few persons fitting this description in late Iron Age Britain, but
it would be idle to speculate further on this point.
The destruction by fire of the first baths29 seems to have brought
about not only the building of a new ba-th-houses0 but also some additions
to the dwelling-house itself (Villa II, Period V, c. A.D. 120-180);
these consisted of the construction of the north-west wing of the villa,
a small complex: of servants' quarters, and the lengthening and reconstruction
of the fronting corridor of the villa.
The implication of a thriving establishment is further underlined
in the next stage of reconstruction (Villa III, Period VI, c. A.D. 180-290);
a rear corridor was now added to the house, new servants' rooms and
kitchens were built off the north corner of the building, a new and
substantially larger bath-wing was erected.Sl Certainly, this is not 'a
period of decay'S2 at Eccles as might be argued for other villas;ss
and, if it can be accepted that the Lullingstone villa may have been
confiscated as a result of its owner's involvement in the political
upheavals of the period,84 one wonders why the Eccles villa seems to
have escaped unscathed.
Moreover, this cpntinued prosperity of the estate was not affected
by the.troubled times of the fourth century A.D. (Villa IV, Period VII,
c. A.D. 29()-400). The rear corridor was now partitioned into small
rooms, a channelled hypocaust was inserted, other rooms were added;35
nor was the life of the villa apparently disturbed, let alone interrupted,
by the upheavals of A.D. 367, if the coins in the hypoca.ust's furnace
are taken into account. On the other hand, evidence is gradually
accumulat-ing that the centre of gravity of the villa's life may have
shifted from the central range to the unexcavated south-east wing.
The size of the villa., its early foundation and continued exparu.ion
18 It is not impossible tha.t a military engineer was responsible for the building
of this bath-house; Arclh Oant., lxxix (1964), 135.
20 Arch. Oant., lxxx (1966), 86.
so Il>ii
