In AD 43 the Romans invaded Britain and, over the next 400 years left their imprint all over the country. They established towns, built roads, military forts, farm-steads, and villas.
There are over 1000 known Roman villas in Britain, many of which were built in the richer Southern lowlands. In Hampshire alone there are around 40 villa sites. One of these is to be found at Rockbourne.
Rockbourne is ten miles South of Salisbury close to the New Forest town of Fordingbridge. In 1942, a farmer digging out a ferret in one of his fields discovered tiles and oyster shells. He casually mentioned this to a local estate agent and antiquarian, the late A T Morley Hewitt, who realized the importance of the find. A trial hole was dug and a mosaic floor immediately came to light.
In 1979 the site was acquired by Hampshire County Council who have since preserved the remains, whilst marking out the position of the walls in gravel and stone chippings and restoring and re-laying the better mosaics. A small museum is on the site and provides visitors, particularly schoolchildren, with information about the villa and its development whilst exhibiting some of the many finds.
These include: quernstones (handmills), sickles, corndriers proving that the villa was mainly a farming establishment with over 70 ìrooms,î not all of the same period. The first Roman house was built on the foundations of the circular hut dating back to the Late Iron Age.
Roman jewellery finds included bronze finger-rings, fibula brooches, bracelets, bone hair pins, and glass beads. Other finds included items of wood, stone, leather, bone and cloth.
The most remarkable find was the discovery of a New Forest pottery jar filled with 7,717 bronze coins, buried most probably about AD 295. No one knows for sure why the hoard was never retrieved but the vessel on show in the museum is one of the most popular exhibits.
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