The excavation of the Roman villa in Gadebridge Park, Hemel Hempstead, 1963-8

Abstract

This is an account of excavations of the Roman villa in Gadebridge Park, Hemel Hempstead, which took place in 1963–8. It describes the history of a villa from its simple beginnings in the first century A.D. to its heyday in the fourth century when the owner could boast one of the largest villa bath houses and a bathing pool comparable in size to the Great Bath at Bath. In the mid-fourth century disaster struck. The coin evidence shows that the villa came to an abrupt end and that in or about A.D. 353 it may have been demolished as a result of reprisals against the owner for his support of the rebellion by Magnentius.