Conservation at Chedworth Roman Villa

At the minute I am living in a town in Gloucestershire, called Sherborne. It's a very small town with a few houses, a primary school and a shop. It is located in the Cotswolds, a part of the UK known for its rolling hills, scenic views and wildlife. Wikipedia defines it as an "area of outstanding natural beauty." No joke!

The field next to our house in Sherborne

I am here working as a conservator at Chedworth Roman villa, a National Trust site. The villa was originally excavated in 1864 and the crumbled walls of a large Roman villa were found. The villa originally contained bedrooms, dining rooms, baths, underfloor heating, floor mosaics, and possibly a tower. At the time of the original excavation, the mosaics in the east and west bathhouses were 'restored' and loose tiles, known as tesserae, were set in concrete. Over the years, these have taken on a hue different to the ones not set in concrete as moisture cannot drain out through the concrete and mineral deposits have been left behind. Other mosaics in the corridor of the villa were re-buried and eventually covered with tarmac, but records of their existence remained.

Mosaic stabilized with geotextile strips

This past summer the mosaics were re-excavated and, due to their good condition, plans have been made to create a pavilion over all the mosaics along the walls of the original villa. This new pavilion will protect the newly excavated mosaics and will better represent the layout of the original villa.

Our job has been to stabilize the mosaics to ensure they survive the pavilion construction process. We've been using B-72, a material I had used before to consolidate fragile fossils, and strips of geotextile to secure loose tiles to stable tiles nearby. Once the pavilion is complete, the mosaics will be displayed in the exact condition they were excavated so that visitors can appreciate their patterns while also getting a feel for what 1500+ years have done to the mosaics: tesserae are missing or out of place, one mosaic has Victorian-era post-holes dug through it, and in several instances the ground has begun to undulate under the mosaics, causing them to buckle.

The work has been interesting and since we are a bit ahead of schedule there's plenty of time to answer visitors' questions about what we are doing and even take a few field trips to the nearby roman sites at Cirencester and Bath.

Chedworth Roman villa and Victorian museum

For more on the mosaic conservation project, check out the blog at: http://ntchedworthromanvilla.wordpress.com/