Lullingstone Roman Villa and the Darent Valley
An aerial view of Farningham showing roads, village buildings and fields around the village.

Farningham Villa

The first building uncovered at Farningham was the bath house in 1925. This is now covered by houses. A villa-house was discovered in 1948. Usually, these buildings are referred to as two different villas but they are likely to be parts of one villa complex.

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A black and white photograph showing square trenches dug into the ground in a grid pattern.
'Box excavations' at Farningham Villa in the Darent Valley.
© Kent Archaeological Society

Who excavated this villa?

The dig in 1948 was carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Meates, who also excavated at Lullingstone Roman Villa. Meates liked to dig using a grid system. He dug in squares so that he could carefully search an area and record exactly where he found buildings and objects underground. Pictures we have of Meates’s dig show at least 50 ‘boxes’ in his grid system.

A black and white line plan of Farningham Villa. This drawing shows a long corridor of square and rectangular rooms with a further two rooms connected by a right angle to the far end of the corridor.
© Kent Archaeological Society

What did the Villa look like?

Farningham Villa was a corridor villa. This means that it was a long building, sometimes only one room deep, with wings coming out at the sides. By the 2nd century, another corridor was added behind the main front one. Although this building had a hypocaust, there was also a separate bath house over 200m away. Archaeologists have found hearths and a small oven to the north of the villa. They also found a cooking pot and other kinds of pottery including amphorae and Flavian Samian ware. These kinds of pots were high quality vessels used by the Romans to store food and serve it at their dining tables.

A black and white photograph of a section of excavated wall made of stone and clay with bits of surviving plaster on the surface.
© Kent Archaeological Society

Buildings in the past were often built using materials that could be found nearby. At Farningham Villa, clay was used to build some of the walls which means there was probably a source of clay in the local area. Some buildings at other sites in the Darent Valley had wattle and daub walls and many had flint and mortar foundations.

Evidence at the Villa

Click on the images below to find out more about features found at Farningham Villa. 

A black and white photograph of a small circular hole underneath the concrete floor of Farningham Villa. A measuring rod with black and white sections sits next to the hole.

Foundation Deposits

Foundation Deposits

Amphorae (pots with two handles and a narrow neck), a cooking pot, some Flavian Samian ware, and a brass coin from AD 77-79 were found in a ‘foundation deposit’ underneath the floor at Farningham Villa. Foundation deposits are small holes cut into the floor of a house which were filled with objects. These were offerings to bring good luck to a house and the people who lived there.

© Kent Archaeological Society



A black and white photograph of a small hole in the ground with a small dog skeleton inside.

Dog Burial

Dog Burial

Archaeologists also found a small dog skeleton in one of the villa rooms under a slab of concrete. This slab acted as a kind of lid for the hole and had been slightly whitened. The whitened slab suggests that the people who lived in the house buried their dog with care and wanted to remember them.

© Kent Archaeological Society



A black and white photograph of a section of wall plaster at Farningham. The plaster has a large dark criss-cross pattern across it.

Plaster Decoration

Plaster Decoration

Lots of painted plaster was found at Farningham Villa. Some of this may have been fallen ceiling plaster. There was a greenish-yellow line running along the middle of the walls (a dado rail). A trellis with dark blue above it against a light red background sat above this. The design also included small white spots where parts of the trellis met. There was a painted lemon-coloured flower with three leaves in each of these spaces.

 

© Kent Archaeological Society



A black and white photograph showing black and white poles sticking out from slots in the stone floor of the Villa.

Slots in the Foundations

Slots in the Foundations

Slots in the wall foundations at the villa were probably used to hold heavy wooden supports, which held up the roof. There were crushed bird bones in the base of the slots which could have been put there as part of a ritual deposit. The Romans believed that placing deposits like this inside their houses would protect them from harm.

 

© Kent Archaeological Society



Activity Idea

ART AND DESIGN

Use the description of the plaster found at Farningham Villa to help inspire your own Roman wall plaster and wall painting design. You could research Roman myths and legends and include images from them in your design, like many villa owners did. Mythical creatures like nymphs can be seen in wall paintings found at Lullingstone Roman Villa.