Two sorts of windows were used, round-headed openings for the corridor on the front of the villa and square windows on the back and one side. There are no surviving window frames or shutters from Roman Britain. We are also guessing at the reaction of the Roman occupants to cold and draughts, not to mention their expectations of what light was needed to live by.
The round-headed windows onto the corridor have timber frames, using known Roman joints, and have wooden shutters.
The square windows elsewhere are treated in different ways. In the hypocaust room, there are smaller windows, with fixed panes of glass. This heated room would have been really rather dark and the lack of openings to the outside would have made it airless. The next room has two openings. These are protected by newly made metal window grilles, following the pattern of those that have been found on archaeological sites. There is an all-metal (wrought iron) example with a square framework with iron 'stars' partly filling in the gaps. In another, the square frame is made of wood with the stars added to the bars. When painted the two types would not have seemed that different. These grilles would have kept human intruders out and also larger mammals and birds. Smaller mammals and birds would have been able to get in, so security must be the reason for these grilles. These windows also have shutters, set inside the grilles and opening inwards, to cut out the weather and reduce draughts.
The reception /summer dining room originally had ground floor windows. As a result of experiencing the half-built room, it was decided to make this a blank wall with all the emphasis on the wide doorway. Still it was decided to place two high level smaller windows at the back.
The kitchen/service room has three windows. Two of them have simple metal grilles and one a pottery grille.
Some doors survive from Roman Britain. Most show the crudity of Roman timber construction and consist of vertical planks with two horizontals nailed to hold the construction together. They are very much like a modern shed door. There are also Roman folding doors.
In the case of the front door, examples from Pompeii give guidance. The front doors are double-leaved and open outwards. The carpentry is fairly simple. However, following examples from Italy and Germany, the doors are made as much 'in your face' as possible by the addition of metal work, especially studding.
How were the doors hung? Some have metal hinges but the evidence for Roman doors is that many were hung on 'pivots' formed using a vertical pole of wood built in as an integral part of the door on the 'hinges' side. The extensions top and bottom then fit into one hole in the beam over the door and into another in the threshold.
Where doors were not used, curtains seem to have played a significant role but as they can decay very easily we do not have them. Surviving curtains and curtain fragments of Roman date only come from the desert conditions of Egypt but there is additional evidence from Roman literature and art.
So while we have no archaeological evidence from Roman Britain for curtains, it seemed reasonable, from the evidence outlined above, to have them on some of the villa doorways. In the service area, therefore, we have heavy wool curtains. In the other doorways, we have finer curtains decorated with hunt scenes or stripes.
Created 15 November 2003 - Updated 15 November 2003