Butser Ancient Farm

Principal Christine Shaw

WORK BEGINS AT BUTSER ON FIRST ROMAN VILLA TO BE BUILT IN OVER 1,500 YEARS

Work has begun at Butser Ancient Farm on the first reconstruction of a Roman Villa, using original materials and techniques, since the Romans laid down their tools 1,600 years ago.

The project, funded by the Discovery Channel, will be filmed from start to finish by the TV channel and the series, "Rebuilding the Past",broadcast early next year. Presented by Roman Britain expert Guy De La Bedoyere, the programme will not only follow the progress of the team, but also the inevitable disagreements along the way between the country's foremost experts.

The villa is being built according to the exact plan of an excavated site at Sparsholt, near Winchester, which although rudimentary will include central heating using a hypocaust system, intricate painted plaster walls and mosaic floors.

Although experts have a good idea of how these features may have originally looked, many of them have never actually been constructed and put into action before.

"We don't even know exactly how it's going to look yet", explained Christine Shaw, Principal of Butser Ancient Farm. "From excavations, archaeologists have formed a very good idea about how the Romans lived and how their buildings were made, but only by actually trying to recreate this can we truly understand the past. We are really grateful to the Discovery Channel for making this project possible."

Katy Thorogood, Director of Discovery Channel UK, is equally excited about the project: "Discovery Channel has a history of making challenging, compelling factual programming and this is exactly the sort of project which makes great TV. We've got the country's leading experts working on this and our cameras will be there to follow the ups and downs of the team as they literally rebuild the past. We can't wait to see how it turns out! "

Programme presenter. Guy de la Bedoyere, is the country's leading expert on Roman Britain and will be working on the project with the team from Butser Ancient Farm. Guy is a regular on "Time Team", as well as being a part of the popular series "1940's House".

During construction the villa will be open to the public on the last weekend of every month.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW ROMAN VILLA....

• This is the first Roman Villa to be built in Britain for 1600 years and represents a medium size farmhouse common in Roman Britain.
• The villa is being built according to the exact plan of an excavated site at Sparsholt near Winchester that was carried out by local archaeologist David Johnston between 1966 and 1974.
• The technical name for the building is a construct, rather than reconstruction, as reconstruction implies the building is an exact copy of a complete building known to exist, rather than constructed from an excavation.
• The villa will include central heating, intricate painted plaster walls and mosaic floors.
• Butser Ancient Farm is the home for the new villa. As well as being a well known local attraction, it also has an international reputation as a centre of excellence for experimental archaeology.
• The building will be built of coursed flint on a bed of lime mortar mixed according to the Roman formula. Edges will be constructed of Purbeck stone with red tile quoins over the window openings. The roof will be covered with gray limestone tiles.
• Unlike modern buildings, the villa will be rendered and limewashed in keeping with the usual Roman philosophy of making a conspicuous statement of "modernity", wealth and sophistication.
• The window glass of the house will be produced from local sand in a purpose built furnace.
• In charge of the project are Christine Shaw, principal of Butser Ancient Farm and Richard Wilgoss, project director. Roman Britain expert Guy De La Bedoyere is the presenter of the programme.
• Building work on the villa is expected to be completed during Autumn 2002.
• The project is being funded by and filmed for the Discovery Channel and the programme "Rebuilding The Past" will be screened in the Spring.

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Created 03 August 2002 - Updated 13 August 2002