Archaeologist and Roman mosaics specialist Dr David Neal returns to Gadebridge Park for Heritage Open Days to explain what lays under our feet at the site of the Roman Villa and bath houses. A swimming pool discovered by David in 1963 is the largest one to have been found on a Roman villa site and only the large bath at Bath surpasses it in size.
Dr Neal first excavated the Villa between 1963 and 1968 after construction workers uncovered some masonry when digging the Leighton Buzzard Road. He re-excavated the site in 2000.
The Gadebridge Park Villa is thought to have been occupied for well over three hundred years. Originally, it was probably a farmstead, but after the Roman invasion of AD43 its importance as a farm near to the Roman city of Verulamium would have caused it to be extended.
A stone building with corridors and wings was erected, probably covering much of an early timber structure. By the early 3rd century additional wings had been built to create a courtyard and the bath house was further enlarged.
Between around AD300 and AD325 a large swimming pool had been added and had a considerable number of heated rooms. The water was supplied from the nearby River Gade and at the bottom of the steps there are small holes for fish to seek refuge.
It’s thought the villa was deliberately destroyed around the middle of the fourth century.
