Chignall St. James Roman villa (EHER 1040)

Cropmarks of a Roman villa located within a polygonal enclosure. Excavations have revealed pre-Roman Iron Age occupation and artefacts of Mesolithic period; storage pits succeeded by granaries and rectangular enclosures interpreted as paddocks were also uncovered. A Roman inhumation cemetery overlay an early Roman pit complex.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. A cropmark of a Roman courtyard villa, photographed in 1974 by Mrs Ida McMaster and subsequently by the Cambridge Committee for Aerial Photography <1>-<5>, was first discovered during crop spraying from the air. The villa was clearly visible in the barley crop and Mrs McMaster and members of the Colchester Archaeological Group planned the villa outline using aerial photographs and by taking measurements on the ground <6>. A subsequent visit by J. Hedges produced surface finds of Samian and coarse pottery, tiles, opus signinum, tesserae and stone. The structure measures 46.0 by 57.0m. and there are indications of a second building possibly a bath house 11.0m to the west. <7> <8> In the summer drought of 1976 a clearer plan was obtained <9> and associated features also showed up: traces of a possible subsidiary building a few metres to the west of the west wing, and to the east of the villa a series of linear cropmarks may be ditches associated with the building. Also a road or track appeared to run in a south-westerly direction from a point roughly 100m south of the villa <9>. Field survey The site lies on a south facing promontory above the River Can, it is marked by a dense scatter of Roman building debris about 100m. in diameter. The plan of the villa has been plotted from air photographs at 1:2,500. <10> The site of the villa was field walked by L. Savory and C. Couchman of Essex County Council's Archaeology Section in 1974 prior to the site being scheduled; finds comprised pottery (including Samian), brick, tile including decorated hypocaust tile), tesserae, mortar, opus signinum and large shaped stone fragments which suggests that the villa has stone foundations. <11> Environmental samples from the system of parallel ditches and associated lateral projections were examined. No pollen was present due to calcareous conditions but molluscs and charred plant remains were present. There were equal abundances of 'shade loving' and 'open country' molluscs. Little information was available from the charred plant remains as most pieces of charcoal were too small to be identified. <12> Site Assessment = The land slopes down to the north and the southern corner of the villa has been eroded. Aee EHER 1045 for details of excavation outside the scheduled area surrounding the villa, where Cawoods Aggregates had obtained planning permission to extract gravel. Additional references <13> - 19> Finds from fieldwalking of the villa. <20> <21> Scheduled listing. <22> ES 16 Listed as a large Roman courtyard villa in a polygonal enclosure. <23> Additional references <24> - <29>