Roman Britain: Rural Landscape (Iron Age Settlements, Villas, Imperial Estates, Regional Differences)

The rural population of Britain formed:

83% - 90%

of the whole population.

• Largely round houses, but some simple rectangular buildings.
• Set in different types of farm enclosure.
• Many replaced by villas later.
• But continued to be built into the 3rd and 4th centuries.
  • E.g. Birdlip, Gloucestershire - where roundhouses were built in an area where villas were fairly common).
  • E.g. Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire
  • Marked continuity in domestic architecture, and gradual romanisation (in that a) not everyone accepted Roman living, and b)suggests co-existance wasn't too hostile). 

• Settlements fall into several categories 
  • Extensive Villages: e.g. Cranborne Chase, Fenlands, Upper Thames Valley.
  • Grouped and isolated farms. 
• Sometimes, non-villa settlements were located close to Villas.
  • Homes of servants of tennants of the villa owning family? E.g. Stanwick, Northamptonshire.
• Non-villa owners, not neccesarily poor.
  • Some may have been independent land owners.
  • Some buildings demonstrate surplus of wealth.
  • Some excavated remains show a high living standard.

• 'A seaside or country etate of a wealthy member of the urban elite' - Salway
• But owned by very small population: 10-12%
• In written sources;
  • Pliny: boasts of his country estate and garden
  • But there is no literary evidence about Villa function or ownership in Britain --> only 1 name survives: Villa Faustina.
• Villas identified by architectural evidence/traces
  • Some or all may occur; e.g. stone foundations, ceramic/stone-tiled roofs, mortar floors, tessellated pavements, under-floor heating, painted wall plaster, window glass, bath houses.
  • All required specialist quarrymen, tile-makers, artistis, craftsmen

• Ranges of shapes and sizes:
  • rectangular block, winged corridor, courtyards.
• Represents the adoption of a Romanised lifestyle.
• Many villas divided into sections:
  • Some areas for relaxation, some for work, etc.
  • Visitors could be restricted to appropriate ares (i.e. different rooms for guests/servants/family)
• Early villas, such as Fishbourne - an 'ostentatious showpiece) were more elaborate (mostly.)
• More modest villas spread later in the 1st/2nd centuries.(in south-east) 
• By 4th: Villas became more common (in the east, centre and north-east of the countryside)

• Many villas were on farms, and formed a vital part of the market economy -- > linked to roads, provided producuts to local towns, etc.
• Some villas had specialities;
  • Shakenoak Villa, Oxfordshire = fish-farming.
  • Nene Valley Villas = pottery/metalworking.
  • East Coast Villas = oyster-farming/salt production.
  • Barnsley Park = wool production.
  • Claydon Pike = horse ranch.
• Each estate would have included a range of resources
  • Arable land, pasture, meadow, woodland
• Hambelden Villa, Buckinghamshire.

• Villa owners;
  • Some descended from native Britons, e.g. children of chiefs who'd made deals with the invaders
  • Some originated from overseas:
    • 2nd Century tablet from Walbrook, London: mentions 3 men who owned a wood in Kent, names suggesting from the western empire, e.g. Spain, Gaul, Italy, etc.
• At the very most, 15% of Roman settlements in the lowland zone were villas. Proportions were even lower in the highland areas.
• Areas that have dense distribution of villas:
  • Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Cotswolds, the area of Hertforshire around Verulamium

• In the North and West (and in the Free North outside the province) the landscape differed.
• Ken and Pera Dark: a 'native landscape' survived in the highland zone.
• Military presence continued in highlands --> may have inhibited the growth of towns and villas, although a few examples did exist.
• The typical native settlement (across Wales, Cornwall, Northern England and Scotland) were enclosed by an earth or stone bank and a ditch. Houses were often round and stone.
  • e.g. the brochs (stone houses) and duns (hill forts) of Scotland.
  • e.g. Chysauster, Cornwall.
• In some areas on the edge of the highlands, settlements developed similarly to the lowlands.
  • Villas known in small numbers from the south-west, northern wales, and northen england (particularly in the north-east)

• Excavations in settlements in the highland zone show its common to find 'Roman' objects, e.g. pottery/coins --> Suggests a level of trade between the native population and Roman merchants.

• Cornawall and North Wales: Considerable quantitiies of Roman goods found on many sites.

• Northern England and Southern Scotland: Roman objects far less common.

• Properties belonging to the emperor.
• Known in some parts of the empire, but it is not certain where they existed in Roman Britian.
• Main Possibilities:
  • Fenlands, East Anglia
  • Upper Thames Valley
  • Hambelden Villa, Buckinghamshire

• May have been an imperial estate, housing series of tenants.
• Settlement at Stonea Grange, Cambridgeshire, may have been the administrative centre of the estate –-> as it had an elaborate tower.
• Had a substantial investment in the drainage system –-> may suggest public funding --> But no inscription/literary sources to back up claim.
• But may just have used surplus wealth in different ways than villa owners.

• The gravel terrances of the Upper Thames Valley has been suggested to be an imperial estate.
• Dense distribution of non-vill settlement, excavated at Claydon Pike, Gloucestershire.
  • Elaborate with evidence of wealth surplus.
• Some military finds --> may have formed part of an estate that was run by the Roman army to supply units with horses.

• Possible imperial estate -- > clearly a business.
• 70 gold pens found = suggests a lot of administration/paperwork.
• Corn drying ovens, but no graneries --> exported asap.
• 97 infant burrials found --> dead children of slaves.