Brading Roman Villa

Brading Roman Villa, situated on the Isle of Wight on the South coast of England (Location: SZ 599 861) provides an excellent case-study of soils and archaeology and is very well worth a visit. In about 50AD, a series of timber-framed buildings were erected on the site of a former iron age settlement.

At first this was a farmstead, but later it developed to become a handsome courtyard villa with stone and wooden buildings on three sides of a central court or garden.

Brading Villa is particularly well known for the magnificent mosaic flooring, 'rediscovered' in 1879 by Mr. Munns, of Morton Manor Farm, and Captain John Thorp, a retired Army Officer living in the district. The site was first excavated between 1880 and 1884 and then re-excavated between 2002 to 2004.

As the Villa originally fell into disuse, it was covered over by vegetation and then ultimately by soil as the years passed. This protected and preserved the fabric and artefacts. It was only when archaeologists removed these layers of soil that they could learn how the site must once have looked and who lived there, and what their lives must have been like.

The Brading Visitor Centre now displays the wide variety of items discovered in these investigations, as well as the mosaic floors and other extraordinary features such as a hypocaust underground heating sytem.

Without the blanketing layer of soil protecting these remains over the years, we would not today be able to gain such a keen insight into the lives of those who lived at Brading. For more information about this site, including some excellent educational resources, visit the Brading website.

Soil-Net would like to thank the Trustees of the Brading Roman Villa for their kind permission for the Villa to feature on this website.