Crofton Roman Villa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Crofton Roman Villa |
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Crofton Roman Villa, museum
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| General information | |
| Location | Orpington |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°22′22″N 0°05′16″E / 51.3729°N 0.0878°E |
| Construction started | c. 140 |
| Demolished | c. 400 |
Imagine stepping back in time to ancient Rome, right here in England! The Crofton Roman Villa in Orpington, London, is a fascinating ancient house. It was lived in for a long time, from about 140 AD to 400 AD. That's over 250 years!
This villa was the main building of a huge farm. The farm covered about 500 acres, which is like 378 football fields! There were other farm buildings, fields, and woods all around. The house itself changed a lot over the years. At its biggest, it probably had more than 20 rooms.
Today, you can still see the remains of ten rooms. Some rooms have special floors called "opus signinum", made of concrete. Others have beautiful tiled floors, known as "tessellated" floors. You can also see parts of their ancient central heating system, called a hypocaust. This system used hot air under the floors to keep the house warm!
The villa is easy to find, right next to Orpington railway station. It's also not too far from another famous Roman house, Lullingstone Roman Villa, in Kent.
How It Was Found
The Crofton Roman Villa was discovered by accident in 1926. Workers were getting ready to build a driveway for new offices. As they dug, they found some old Roman objects.
Archaeologists did some quick digging and confirmed there was a Roman villa there. But they didn't fully explore the site until 1988. The Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit (KARU) did more detailed work then. They published a book in 1996 about all their amazing discoveries. Today, the villa's remains are protected inside a modern building, so everyone can visit and learn about it.
Gallery
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This is a hypocaust, the Roman underfloor heating system.
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Look at this amazing Roman floor!
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