Low Ham Villa

Villa

The Roman Villa at Low Ham was discovered in 1938 by H.Cook. It lies in a meadow about 1/2 mile E. of the church, on land formerly ploughed but now under grass. Excavations have been carried out, since 1945, by C.A. Ralegh Radford and H.S.L. Dewar when the dwelling-house was revealed to be L-shaped with two ranges set at right angles with verandahs facing N. and E. on to a courtyard, the principal appartments facing north. At the W. end was a luxurious set of reception rooms with heated mosaic floors and beyond this a bath block. The earliest pottery from the site dates from about AD 200 and the oldest house was fairly small with no mosaic floors. An extension was made in the late 3rd c., but the final reconstruction took place about AD 330 which produced the heated rooms and quality mosaics, one of which is in Taunton Castle Museum. It depicts illustrations of Book IV of the Aeneid.

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