Aiskew Roman villa

Aiskew Roman villa lies in a field near the village of Aiskew in North Yorkshire. It was found by chance in 2013 when a geophysical survey for a new bypass picked up buried walls. Archaeologists from Pre-construct Archaeology dug a small trench between November 2014 and February 2015. County Archaeologist Peter Rowe called the discovery a surprise because nothing had hinted at a villa here before. More than ninety-five per cent of the site remains untouched beneath the soil. The villa stands close to Dere Street, the Roman road that ran from York to Scotland. It is less than ten kilometres from Cataractonium, a major Roman fort at Catterick. The building is a winged-corridor type with a long central block and two wings at each end. It was built in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD and once had heated rooms. Excavators found pieces of a silver stylus, African amphora rims, Nene Valley Colour Coated Ware and samian ware. The villa was built over an earlier Iron Age field system and enclosure. Visitors today walk past a small information board beside the field. The visible remains are slight, but the site shows where the villa’s wings once projected from the main range. The surrounding countryside is quiet farmland with wide skies. The villa’s location near Dere Street suggests it once served travellers and local landowners alike.