Kings Weston Roman Villa

Kings Weston Roman Villa stands in Lawrence Weston, a northern suburb of Bristol. It is a Scheduled Monument on the edge of a post-war housing estate. The remains include two buildings: one fully dug out to the east and another partly hidden beneath Long Cross road. The eastern building shows the winged corridor style common in Roman Britain. Visitors can still see original mosaic floors, a working hypocaust and the only Roman bath suite open to the public in Bristol. The villa was the centre of a farming estate linked to the salt marshes of the River Avon. Cattle grazed on the flats while cereals grew on higher ground nearby. It lay close to a Roman road and the port town of Abonae, which sent goods to Gloucester and Bath. Excavations in the 1980s found a Romano-British farmstead only 400 metres away. Coins and building work show the eastern wing was built after AD 268 and altered several times in the 4th century. A protective shelter now covers the excavated floors so visitors can walk among the ruins. The walls of Carboniferous Limestone and sandstone stand to a modest height. Outside, the modern estate curves around the site, keeping the remains visible. A 1949 model in Bristol Museum helps explain the layout. The western building, still partly buried, may hold more walls and floors beneath the road.