Keynsham Roman Villa

Keynsham Roman Villa refers to a cluster of villas built during the Roman occupation of Britain near Keynsham in Somerset, England. Two villas have been found, the larger of which is thought to be one of the grandest villas constructed in all of Britain. The sites have never been fully excavated, in part because portions of each are located underneath a cemetery, a major road, and the now shuttered Somerdale Chocolate Factory.

The remains of the villas are located in what is now known as the Keynsham Hams, an alluvial flood plain located in the River Avon Valley just south of the River Avon near the town of Keynsham in Somerset. The Hams are an open area consisting of fields, pastures, and meadows, divided by hedgerows and drainage ditches. To the north of the Hams lies the Avon River and Cleeve Wood. To the south the Hams is bordered by a railroad line and the town of Keynsham. This landscape has recently been classified as a "Floodplane Grazing Marsh," and a UK BAP priority habitat, or a natural area that provides a unique range of habitats for flora and fauna. The landscape is dominated by the now shuttered Somerdale Chocolate Factory at the far east of the Hams, which was built between 1923 and 1935. The factory site was closed in 2011 and sold in 2012, and is currently being redeveloped into a housing community.

In the 18th century, the "Great Bath Road" leading from London to the fashionable city of Bath (and eventually to Bristol) passed through this area, and the road covered over the western and southern corridors of the house with a high embankment.

The first excavation of Keynsham's Roman villas was carried out in 1877, when the parish church of Saint John's ran out of burial space in the graveyard, and there was no means of enlarging it. The Vicar and the churchwardens purchased two and a half acres of land to create the new Durley Hill Cemetery in the Hams. However, when trenches were dug at the site for two mortuary buildings, workers discovered a flat pavement of white tesserae, or small stones used to form a mosaic, beneath the surface. As it turned out, these tesserae belonged to the courtyard of a high status villa, with at least 30 rooms and 10 complete mosaics. Unfortunately, despite the indications that this was a large Roman archeological site, burials began almost immediately, and continued for 40 years. From 1922-24, a team carried out excavations at the cemetery site, uncovering 17 rooms. The archeological teams were able to salvage 10 elaborate 4th century mosaics before the site was destroyed to make room for more interments.

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