A second site, 300yds further N (than Wood Meadow Villa, M1759). There is already evidence of a building of much higher quality, with elaborately painted plasterwork. (1)

Excavation of villa from 1960-66 has recovered the plan of the main stone-based structures which stood here in succession. It appears possible that, following a rectangular timber building whose traces are very fragmentary, a succeeding simple stone structure was altered by the addition of a range of buildings to the S, which ran the whole length of the first house (over 90ft) and contained a hypocaust, heating a living-room. The existence of a series of large post-holes and pillar-bases parallel to the run of the original N wall could indicate some kind of aisled hall. Within this aisle is a bath suite of 3 rooms with a small, well-preserved labrum floor of red and grey tile. This emptied into a stone-lined drain which ran down the slope to the east. (4)

During a geophysical survey, the results found that immediately to the south of a potential former structure are more positive linear features, 2 to 6 nT/m, potentially
associated with a large dipolar area -100 to 100 nT/m. These features may represent former enclosure features or settlement activity, likely associated with the potential villa immediately to the north. (5)



See L8264 for earlier ditches, L9349 for structure to N, M1759 for Thurgarton villa, which this villa may have replaced.

<1> Thoroton Society, 1961, TTS, p 6 (Published document). SNT375.

<2> EMAB eds, 1961, East Midlands Archaeological Bulletin, p 14 (Published document). SNT155.

<3> EMAB eds, 1963, East Midlands Archaeological Bulletin, p 15 (Published document). SNT157.

<4> EMAB eds, 1964, East Midlands Archaeological Bulletin, p 25 (Published document). SNT158.

<5> Robert Evershed, 2021, Archaeological Evaluation Report: Geophysical Survey by Magnetometry on Land West of Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire (Unpublished document). SNT5915.