Southwick Roman Villa
About
Southwick ranked as the second-largest villa known in Sussex, a palatial residence built around 70-80 CE and decorated in a style closely comparable to nearby Fishbourne Roman Palace. Excavations in the 1930s found the villa had sprawled across an area now covered by a church and dozens of modern houses, and the site was largely lost to 20th-century development. Occupation there continued for nearly three centuries, from roughly 80 CE to the 340s CE — already an established estate by 117 CE.
What happened here
A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →