Roman Gardens
The earliest evidence for designed landscapes in England has come from the excavation of Roman villas. Eight Roman villas on the Isle of Wight have been subject to at least some investigation, all but one of these being located fairly close to the central ridge of chalk downland - but the sites of many more Roman buildings are now known, mainly through finds recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (www.finds.org.uk).
Brading Roman villa (SM) is the Island’s richest and most elaborate villa and is the site most likely to have had a formal garden. The most recent excavator of Brading Roman villa has suggested that in the fourth century AD the villa courtyard was set out as a formal garden. Attempts to trace garden features in 1995 failed but excavation in 2008 identified a possible ‘garden’ soil and the ‘nymphaeum’ recessed into the courtyard wall is a structure appropriate to a formal garden.
A small garden area created close to the villa in the 1990s contains plants known to have been used in Roman gardens.
This site is open to the public and details can be found at this link.
Newport Roman villa (SM) is in the care of the Isle of Wight Council and includes a reproduction of a Roman garden, laid out in 1992 and containing plants likely to have been grown in the Roman period.
This site is open to the public and details can be found at this link.
The earliest evidence for designed landscapes in England has come from the excavation of Roman villas. Eight Roman villas on the Isle of Wight have been subject to at least some investigation, all but one of these being located fairly close to the central ridge of chalk downland - but the sites of many more Roman buildings are now known, mainly through finds recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (www.finds.org.uk).
Brading Roman villa (SM) is the Island’s richest and most elaborate villa and is the site most likely to have had a formal garden. The most recent excavator of Brading Roman villa has suggested that in the fourth century AD the villa courtyard was set out as a formal garden. Attempts to trace garden features in 1995 failed but excavation in 2008 identified a possible ‘garden’ soil and the ‘nymphaeum’ recessed into the courtyard wall is a structure appropriate to a formal garden.
A small garden area created close to the villa in the 1990s contains plants known to have been used in Roman gardens.
This site is open to the public and details can be found at this link.
Newport Roman villa (SM) is in the care of the Isle of Wight Council and includes a reproduction of a Roman garden, laid out in 1992 and containing plants likely to have been grown in the Roman period.
This site is open to the public and details can be found at this link.