Church Field Roman Villa, Otford 2019 Season

ArticlesIssue 112

1 Dec

By Kevin Fromings

We have come to the end of our 5th season at Otford, and both the Discover Roman Otford Project (DROP) and the excavation are going from strength to strength. With over thirty fully signed-up members, at least twenty-five of us are active in the field (and we do some archaeology occasionally as well). In the summer, some of us took part in the fieldwork at Lullingstone villa, under the supervision of the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership.

This year we planned to continue working on the east range, having discovered a hypocaust last year, and a second hypocaust on the last day of the 2018 season (as you do). This work continued, but we had the opportunity to explore a potential connection between the primary and east ranges through the generosity of Brian Thomas, who grazes his sheep on the rest of the field. At this point, I would like to thank Brian, who has voluntarily moved his fences several times to accommodate the scope of the excavation. Thus we have been able to uncover a substantial wall foundation that appears to be the back wall of the main range, and also forms the northwest wall of the east range.

The earliest coins we have are from the main range, the oldest being 218AD, so this part of the building is presumed to be 3rd century.

Our latest coin date from the east range is 402AD, but this does not necessarily indicate the demolition date for the villa. One of the enigmas surrounding the site is its date of dismantlement (as one of our team calls it).

The villa is large – probably the second largest of the Darent Valley villas after South Darenth (we have now confirmed that the east range is 60m long on the outside), and would seem to contain all the elements for a grand house. But it shows signs of, either being built ‘on the cheap’, and all for show, or fell into a decline before being dismantled, possibly in the latter half of the 4th century. We have one datable coin from a sealed demolition context, but the date is 342AD, and we are reasonably confident that the villa was occupied at that point.

If we look at an aerial view of the connecting section, we can see several elements that show the evolution of a high-status farmhouse to a grand villa.

Top

Fig 1: Drone image of Church field villa excavation showing the main range on the left, and the east range at the top. North is at the top left-hand corner of the photo

Opposite page

Fig 2: Northeast corner of main range

Middle

Fig 3: Potential bath house

Bottom

Fig 4: Large hypocaust, along with some of the dig team

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In Fig 2, the small room at the left

(1) has been identified as a kitchen, built onto the main wall sometime in the 4th century. Compared with the other walls the foundations are very shallow. A doorway opens onto what was probably a rough yard. The top corner of the range itself has an in-situ opus signinum floor (2). This year, we have partially uncovered three rooms in the main range, and they all appear to have had opus sig floors, with no tiles or tesserae on top. What appears to be the original main NE wall of the main range (3) still contains some in-situ stones, which is unusual for our site.

In the late 3rd or early 4th century, a probable bath house was added to the complex. This building had buttresses at the opposing NW (4) and SE corners. The bath house had a different type of foundation to the main range – shallower, and with a crushed chalk base, whereas the original foundations went deep into the natural, with a flint base. At some point the back – NW – wall of the bath house was extended to join the main back wall of the villa (5). At this point the buttress would have been superfluous to requirements, and was either demolished to ground level, or left as an internal buttress.

The NE wall of the bath house appears to have been extended – possibly for privacy’s sake – and forms the NE wall of the east range. How long after the bath house these rooms were constructed is difficult to say. The chalk foundations appear continuous, and either represent good forward planning, or a last minute change of mind. Outside the bath house was possibly a small garden, with a small tree, or vine, initially a sun trap, but a cool shady area once the rest of the east range had been built.

The bath house was probably composed of four rooms. The photo shows the caldarum (top centre), the tepidarum (bottom left), the frigidarum, and general changing room are in the foreground. This area is one of our targets for next year, as we need to understand the water system, the villa probably being supplied by springs that are now in a nearby garden.

The other hypocaust we uncovered had a furnace just outside the east wall of the east range, and presents a design that we have not seen elsewhere.

In September students from the University of Kent at Canterbury carried out sterling work on the front of the main range. We would like to thank them for their efforts in uncovering the opus signinum floor of the corridor/verandah, the main line of the front wall, and a crushed chalk surface that may be the entrance roadway across the main courtyard/garden.

Finds from this year have included decorated painted wall plaster, pottery, coins, and the find of the year: a pair of shears, probably for male grooming purposes (Fig 6). We look forward to more evidence of the occupants’ private lives next year.

I would like to finish with a huge thank you to all those who have taken part so far. There have been some superhuman efforts to achieve this year’s results. So, why not come and join us next year?