North Leigh

1. North Leigh

4. Analysis • Classic rectangular layout- buildings makes up three sides of a rectangle, surrounding a courtyard, with a gatehouse and corridors making up the fourth side • Pre- Roman British pottery has been found beneath, suggesting earlier occupation • It included 4 bath suites, 16 mosaic floors and 11 rooms with under-floor heating • Abandoned when the Romans left – suggests Roman or very wealthy occupant (obviously) • Constructed sometime during the 1st century, reaching its greatest extent during the 4th

5. Leigh out • Over 60 rooms • There is near complete red and brown mosaic floor, which can be seen through the windows of the building which protects the floor from the Cotswolds weather. • The floor is thought to have been designed and built by workers from the Corinium School, in Cirencester • ‘Courtyard layout’ – Highly developed • Aerial photographs have revealed that there were further buildings beyond the south-west range – perhaps including an aisled barn or hall – which may have formed a home farm for the villa

6. Use • Villas- Retreats from cities for Romano- British – many had extensive bath houses • Country estates- productive farming • The former is vouched for by luxurious reception rooms, decorated with expensive mosaics • Evidence for the latter is given in the form of barns, stables, mills and other mundane farm buildings- to the south west of North Leigh • Hambleden had huge capacity for drying corn, but nor barns or granaries- state owned army supplier? • Evidence for villas later being converted into purely farming estates- Gadebridge Park had its house and bath- suite demolished and replaced by animal pens