Piddington Roman Villa
| Piddington Roman villa | |
| Roman Building | |
 Piddington Roman villa, Northamptonshire
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| Country | England |
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| State | Northamptonshire |
| Region | East of England |
| District | South Northamptonshire |
| Municipality | Hackleton |
| Location | At the northeast corner of the village in Chapel End |
| - coordinates | 52°11′02″N 0°49′26″W / 52.184°N 0.824°WCoordinates: 52°11′02″N 0°49′26″W / 52.184°N 0.824°W |
| Founded | 1959 |
 Piddington within Northamptonshire
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| Map Ref: SP802545 | |
Piddington Roman Villa is the remains of a large Roman villa at Piddington, Northamptonshire, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Northampton.
The villa is on the site of an earlier late Iron Age settlement. The museum is housed in an old de-consecrated Wesleyan chapel, built in 1851, located in Chapel End on the north-eastern edge of the village The chapel is marked by a small cross, +, on Ordnance Survey "Explorer" map 207 of "Newport Pagnell and Northampton South with Towcester and Olney". If travelling by car, park at the village hall in Hackleton: follow signs for the pocket park on the west side of the main road, the B526. Then follow the footpath to Piddington for about 750 yards, bearing left at the footpath junction and past some allotments. At present, the museum is only open on Sunday afternoons from 2-5 pm.
Excavation by the Upper Nene Archaeological Society since 1979 provides evidence that the area close to Piddington has been occupied for ca.10,000 years. Neolithic, ca.3500–1500 BC, and Bronze Age people, ca.1500–600 BC, left behind flint tools and arrowheads which they used for hunting. No houses survived however. A late Iron Age settlement originated around the middle of the 1st century BC where people lived in round houses inside an enclosure with an outer ditch for protection. They were skilled at pottery and making bronze objects and traded with continental Europe. After the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, there was a military presence here and the Roman villa followed later that century, first made of wood, then stone, developing into a great house over the next 250 years.
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