Frampton Roman Villa: Lost and Found

Conference: Roman Dorset: Town and Country

Dates: 11/11/2023

Publication Date: 11/11/2023

Abstract:

In 1796, the great antiquarian Samuel Lysons oversaw the clearance of a series of figured mosaics on a site at Nunnery Mead in Dorset, overlooking a bend in the river Frome, near Frampton, 9km north-west of Dorchester. The floors, considered to be among the richest produced in Roman Britain, were recorded in considerable detail and left open for a limited time in order that King George III and his entourage could inspect them, before the site was abandoned late in 1797. Although Lysons published the results of investigations at Frampton in his Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae, key questions regarding the structural form, extent, chronology and sequence of the buildings remained unanswered whilst the ultimate fate of the mosaics themselves, following the completion of works, was unclear. Archaeological investigations, conducted in the early half of the 20th century, strongly suggested that the mosaics were lost, possibly even having been deliberately disfigured or destroyed, during a series of unrecorded 19th century explorations. Recent work at Nunnery Mead, however, has shown that not only do significant areas of the original Roman floor survive, but that evidence exists to help interpret both the form of the Roman building, and also the nature of backfill and consolidation following Lysons’ work.

Source: Manual