A Roman Roof Tile from Hartlip Villa

By Trevor Bent & Dave Ambrose

Hartlip Roman villa site was initially excavated in 1845 by Charles Roach Smith and again in 1848. The location of the villa building remained unknown for many years after the excavations. However, recent research and small-scale fieldwork led by local archaeologist Dave Ambrose, supported by the Shorne Woods Archaeology Group (SWAG), re-located the villa; see The Re-Discovery of Hartlip Roman Villa article on the site by Gerald Cramp in KAS Magazine 116, pp22-25.

SWAG’s evaluation fieldwork trenching revealed Roman structural remains and were successfully georeferenced to Roach Smith’s 19th-century plans, establishing its location using the KAS GNSS surveying equipment.

Approximately fifty metres south of the established villa remains, a flat-bottomed V shape ditch was identified, about one metre in depth. Two small trial trenches revealed roof tile fragments and several pieces of pottery, animal bone and iron nails.

These items were in the upper layers of the ditch fill, and nothing was found in the lower layers.

Above

Fig 1: Excavation of ditch showing roof tile fragments

The tile fragments in (Fig 1) were recovered from the upper ditch fill. Anyone excavating a known Roman site with buildings will understand that roof tile (tegula) fragments are a regular find. However, I did not realise it at the time, but upon taking the fragments home to clean, all seven pieces fitted together, but the whole left-hand side was missing.

I rebuilt the tile to show how it would have looked when a component of a Roman roof. The tegula weighed six kilograms and formed a rectangle, 40.5cm long, 31.5cm wide across its top and 28.5cm across the bottom, looking slightly trapezoidal. The bottom of the tile is narrower so that it fits between the ridges of the tile laid below once on the roof (Fig 3).

The Hartlip tile is likely later (after AD 240) due to several factors: early Roman roof tiles were longer (c.48cm, reducing to c.41 cm by AD 240); early tiles were much more rectangular, unlike the Hartlip tile, which is slightly trapezoidal; and interestingly, whilst there were no nail holes in early Roman tiles, but this example has a nail hole toward the top (Warry, 2006).

Whilst millions of tegulae were manufactured and used during the Romano-British period (AD 43 to AD 410), the Hartlip tile is a tangible reminder of the construction, lifespan and eventual disappearance of a local villa. The Hartlip tile has now been gifted to Hartlip Junior School to help their Roman studies.

REFERENCES

Warry, P. (2006) Tegulae: Manufacture, Typology and Use in Roman Britain. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Top, left

Fig 2: Roof tile reconstruction

Top, right

Fig 3: Mock-up of 4 tegulae joined, bonded and imbrex (curved) tiles placed over tile ridges

Bottom

Fig 4: Schematic diagram of Hartlip Tile