Roman refurbishment
Both ends of the Roman building have had work done recently. The furnace end has been completely re-limewashed and the fake ashlar block stonework redone with a mixture of red […]
Category Archives: Villa
How to fix an antefix
‘Double Dolphin’ and ‘Medusa’ – not Roman craft beers but designs of decorative antefix tiles which go on the ends of a tile roof. In Roman times they would have […]
Limewash strikes back
Following the successful de-pinking of the gable end of the Roman building it received a new coat of limewash to make it sparking white again. The Saxon longhall gable end […]
Summer meltdown
In the second week since returning from lockdown, seering temperatures made life difficult but lots was achieved. A Saxon tent, hundreds of tesserae, fixing the antefixes, carvings, weed destruction and […]
Wildlife mosaic challenge
Within the mosaic floor of the Roman building, there are a series of five roundels, based on the design of the nearby Hurcot mosaic. These would often be filled with […]
Wonderful volunteers
As its National Volunteer Week here in the UK, here is a slideshow of the wonderful Hands on Heritage and Lost Island Detective volunteers in action. Nothing would have been […]
Tesserae totaliser
One of the advantages of the lockdown period, that has been overlooked by Number 10, has been the fact that Martin and Richard have been heriocally undergoing hard labour on […]
The final countdown
Only 147,840 tesserae left to make!
Starting at floor level
The top coat of the rammed earth floor is being developed in the longhall. Recipe: 2 barrows of sieved clay subsoil, one barrow of sand, 2 buckets of lime, an […]
Monty Python 50th celebration
In honour of the 50 years of Monty Python silliness, and of one of the best films ever made. Thanks to Richard Barwell for the painting. Needless to say, he […]
'Hands on Heritage' in the Avalon Marshes 