Brading Roman Villa

Brading Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display in Brading on the Isle of Wight [1]. In 1879, a farmer called Mr Munns struck a buried mosaic floor while making holes on his land for a sheep pen [1]. The first simple villa dates from the mid-1st century but, over the next hundred years, it developed into a large and impressive stone-built villa around three sides of a central courtyard [1]. Its luxurious rooms contained many fine Roman mosaics [1]. Despite a disastrous fire in the 3rd century AD, the villa was still used for farming purposes for another 100 years [1]. Artefacts found within the house point to a high standard of living; Samian pottery, jewellery and games have all been found [1]. There are mosaics in five of the rooms in the main villa house, which display a variety of subjects indicating the owners' wealth and education [1]. On the north side of the main villa house are the remains of a farmhouse, probably lived in by workers, which has the remains of a hypocaust and a well [1].