Today we travelled up in the Cotswolds to visit North Leigh Roman Villa. Most roman settlements in the UK where villas with various buildings including storage, residential, worship and bathing and over 500 have been identified by only around two dozen have visible remains in a natural setting and it’s here in Oxfordshire that there is just one. North Leigh roman villa is a relatively large settlement that was established around the start of the second century and inhabited until the romans left the country in the fifth century.

The site itself is a quiet and rural location surrounded by fields, the walk down to the villa is a beautiful and steady trial, steep in some parts but overall a fantastic walk through the countryside.

The villa itself had a traditional courtyard design with rooms of three sides of a central square and the main entrance on the other side facing the river. The rooms along two lengths of the courtyard are visible today, including a great example of hypocaust, which is also known as underfloor heating, something very common in roman villas. one room which is considered to be the main dining area with a nearly complete mosaic floor that is largely composed of geometric patterns is now enclosed in a stone building to protect it.

You can see through the windows on two sides of this building and catch a glimpse of the mosaics, but it is not easy to make out any details. It looks as though the mosaic building was intended to be open to the public from time to time, but has been shut for a while.

There are several information panels around the site, including a very useful map of the location, showing when the different parts of the villa were built so its worth looking out for those, otherwise we hope you’ve enjoyed joining us explore North Leigh roman villa, we wanted to show you a different perspective of the villa and its size coming up in the next clips, if you’ve enjoyed watching please comment down below, give us a like and consider subscribing to the channel!

Till next time.