Lullingstone Roman Villa and the Darent Valley
A sepia-coloured photograph of three men, a boy and a girl, inside a trench surrounded by stone villa remains.

Otford Progress Villa

The corridor and courtyard of Otford Progress Villa were built by the end of the 1st century AD and the only known pottery kiln in the Darent Valley was found here. It’s likely that the villa burned down in the late 2nd century AD. Some later objects were found at the villa, including some 4th-century coins. This suggests that the site was still being used in some way later.

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A sepia-coloured photograph of a man in a large hat, white shirt and dark trousers sitting above a stone hole. He is holding an almost-complete ceramic flagon with a slim neck and two handles.
An excavator sitting above the kiln at Otford Progress Villa c.1920.
© Otford and District Historical Society

What did the Villa look like?

Otford Progress Villa had a corridor about 2.4m (8ft) wide. The courtyard was about 15.2m (50ft) wide.

Archaeologists think that the villa and courtyard were built at the same time around the middle of the 1st century AD. The kiln at the villa was probably built a little later. At the end of the 1st century AD the kiln was abandoned and filled in with broken pottery and charcoal lying nearby. After the villa burnt down it was not rebuilt and the courtyard might have been used as a place to house cattle.

Evidence at the Villa

Click on the images below to find out more about objects and features found at Otford Progress Villa. 

A black and white photograph of a stone kiln. It has a hole in the top and another at the front.

Pottery Kiln

Pottery Kiln

Otford Progress Villa is the only villa in the Darent Valley where evidence of a pottery kiln has been found. This suggests that pottery was being made there but only on a small scale. Small-scale pottery production could make enough products to use within a settlement but large-scale production could make enough pottery to use and trade in other settlements.

 

© Kent Archaeological Society



Two small pieces of dark-coloured plaster: one with a text inscription, the other with a man's arm holding a spear.

Wall Plaster

Wall Plaster

Examples of wall plaster at this villa show some images and extracts from a poem, Aeneid, by the famous Roman poet, Virgil. Part of the wall paintings shows a man carrying a spear. An inscription next to the painting ‘BINA MANV L’ means ‘two spears in hand’. This image could be Aeneas exploring the land around Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia) or Turnus in his chariot confronting Aeneas in Virgil’s poem.

 

© Otford District Historical Society



A sepia-coloured photograph of two men, a boy and a girl washing and reconstructing pottery at Otford Progress Villa.

Pottery

Pottery

Archaeologists found an almost complete flagon upside down inside the kiln. Mortaria (conical bowls) found at the villa show different potters’ marks. 

 

© Otford District Historical Society



A birds-eye view of excavations at Otford Church Field Villa. This shows stone remains in a right-angled shape.
Drone footage of Otford Church Field Villa.
© Discovering Roman Otford Project (DROP)

Why Were There Two Villas Here?

Half a kilometre from Otford Progress Villa there is another villa, known to archaeologists as Otford Church Field Villa. Archaeologists believe that Otford Progress Villa is too close to the Church Field Villa for both of them to have been used as separate villas at the same time.

It’s possible that Progress Villa went out of use before the Church Field Villa. There are lots of different theories about two buildings. One of them is that Progress Villa might have been used as an estate office for the Church Field Villa.