Bignor Roman Villa

Bignor Roman Villa is a large Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display on the Bignor estate in the English county of West Sussex. It is well known for its high quality mosaic floors, which are some of the most complete and intricate in the country. It is managed by the Bignor Roman Villa Charitable Trust, a registered charity.

The villa is situated just north of the South Downs close to Stane Street, about nine miles northeast of Chichester (the Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum) and the nearby and much larger Fishbourne Roman Palace. It is on the south-facing slope of a ridge of greensand which provided better conditions for agriculture than the nearby chalk; this fact and its proximity to Roman Chichester meant that the owners were able to become wealthy from farming.

The existence of a Romano-British farmstead on the site by the end of the 1st century is indicated by finds, but the earliest structural remains are of a simple timber farm structure dating to around 190 AD. A four-roomed stone building was built in the middle of the 3rd century AD, and this was extended between c.240 and 290 AD by the addition of a few new rooms, a hypocaust, and a portico that faced east towards Stane Street. This building became the western wing when north and south wings were added at the turn of the fourth century. In its final form, the villa consisted of some sixty-five rooms surrounding a courtyard, with a number of outlying farm buildings. The latest phase of building involved additions to the north wing between c.300 and 350 AD, and it is here that most of the fine mosaics are located. The later history of the villa is not well known, but it appears to have gradually declined in status, rather than suffering a catastrophic fate, such as the fire that destroyed most of Fishbourne Palace.

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).