Ashtead Common is ancient
woodland which means it has had woodland cover since
at least 1600. However, the heavy clay soils over most
of the Common would have made it an unfavourable site for
prehistoric settlement and it's therefore likely that the
woodland cover remained over much of the pre-Roman period.
Ashtead Common’s Roman villa complex
The Roman villa is located west of Flag Pond and is described as
a corridor villa. It had two rows of six rooms behind the corridor,
instead of the more usual single row. Associated with the
villa (though not part of the Scheduled Monument,) are a bath
house, tile works and numerous clay pits. The bath house is about
50m south of the villa and is thought to have been for
the use of workers operating nearby kilns. A flint road is also
known to have existed, linking the villa with the nearby road of
Stane Street. It is likely that active management of woodland and
trees on the Common started at this point, if not earlier.
The villa site was first identified in 1924 by A.W.G. Lowther,
and excavated by him over the following years. Further work by J.
N. Hampton in the 1960s identified the clay pits and some kilns,
where a wide variety of tiles and bricks were made. Artefacts found
during these excavations and a model of the villa can be found
in the Leatherhead and Guildford museums. A plan of
the villa is shown on the left and is also available for
download.
The villa was heated using an under-floor hypocaust system of
hollow flue tiles, through which hot air could move. Smoke and hot
air from a central fire moved into space under the floor tiles and
then up hollow flue tiles which lay behind the walls. The flue
tiles had intricate decorations rolled into them to help the wall
plaster stick to them. Many different flue tile designs have been
found at the Ashtead Common villa site, including one with a
particularly intricate dog and stag pattern - interesting
considering the flue tiles could not be seen behind the wall
plaster.
Following the excavations in the
1920s, the villa site was reburied to preserve it for the
future. All that can be seen today are a couple of spoil
heaps that remain from the excavations and the clay pits,
visible from Bridleway 33. The remainder of the site is
covered in woodland, hiding past lives and a lost world
beneath the trees.
For further information on the Ashtead Common villa, please
contact the Ashtead Common Estate Office on 01372 279083.
Ashtead Common’s earthworks
There is a triangular ditch and bank
earthwork to the southwest of the villa. A construction
of unknown origin and age it's possible that it was
prehistoric or medieval. Its proximity to the villa may also
suggest that it has a Romano-British date, possibly with the
purpose of enclosing horses and oxen to move heavy building
materials associated with the tile works. However, it has also
been suggested that the work may be a triangular defence
structure on top of a hill, which would have had good views
all around before the trees grew up. Of course, over time,
it may have been used by different people for
different purposes.
The Earthworks can be found off Concessionary Ride 2 - please
see the map below.
Download map of Ashtead Common (852kb)
Please note: The important historical and
archaeological features on Ashtead Common are vulnerable to
disturbance, damage, or destruction from treasure hunting and
digging. Such activities are prohibited both by national
legislation on the Scheduled Monuments and by the City of London
Byelaws for the whole of the Common.
Current happenings on the Roman Villa
The City of London are working in partnership with Surrey
Archaeological Society and English Heritage in a 5-year
project to uncover more information about Ashtead Common's
Roman Villa.
The current project began in
2006 with a study of the spoil
heaps remaining from the 1920s excavations and also the approach
road, which
it’
s believed linked the villa to Stane Street. Stane Street was an
important Roman road between Noviomagus Regnorum
(Chichester)
and Londinium
(London)
. The archaeologists found lots of remains and buried remnants of a
stone road across the Common.
In 2007, members of the Roman
Studies Group from the Surrey Archeological Society got their
first look inside the villa itself. They already knew that
Roman villas usually started as small buildings and were
extended and improved over time, so the key to understanding
the uncommon floor plan of the villa on Ashtead Common is
working out the phasing of the walls. Trench 3 was placed over
the junction of rooms 10, 11, 12 and 13, to try to sort out
the phasing at this wall junction, but the flint and mortar or
clay walls did not give up their secrets easily. However, the
dig suggests the villa was originally much smaller with a
single line of rooms, like so many others.
Trench 3 also included a large
disturbed area of corridor, allowing the archaeologists to dig
below the villa without disturbing any surviving archaeology.
A crushed brick floor was exposed under a little topsoil,
along with the foundations of the southern wall of room
11. English Heritage permitted the team to get below the
floor in two places, finding evidence of earlier building
under the corridor and cobbles on a packed flint surface,
possibly from the approach road. They also found painted wall
plaster, a gaming counter and board made of tile, high quality
pottery and part of a glass bottle. These excavations aren ’ t
finished, so will be uncovered later this year for further
examination.