Image: Roman Pavement Found at Nether-Heyford

Description: A depiction of the mosaic in the ruins of the Roman villa at Horestone / Horsestone meadow near Nether Heyford, West Northamptonshire, England, from the figures decorating the margins of Moll's map of "Northampton Shire" (Northampton), the 25th in his Set of Fifty New and Correct Maps of England and Wales... The mosaic was discovered in 1699 and destroyed for use in road repair in 1780. John Morton described the mosaic in his Natural History of Northampton-Shire (1712) as "a noble piece of art. It lay under ground, covered with mould and rubbish, in a part of the meadow which is every year overflowed with land floods; and yet when it was first uncovered it was so close and firm as to bear walking upon as well as a stone floor would do. But leaving it awhile exposed to the night dews, the cement became relaxed, and the squares easily separable. It appears to have been the floor of a square room in some house or other structure of a circular figure, and about twenty yards diameter. The room that had this curious floor was in the southern part of the said structure. In the western and northern part of it were several lesser rooms or cellars about ten feet in length and four broad. That there really were such little rooms is plain enough from the partition walls, the bottoms whereof have been discovered in digging there. The borders or sides of the floors were painted with three straight and parallel lines or stripes of three different colours—red, yellow, and green. The floors were all upon the same level. Upon one of these floors were found three urns." Cf. HeritageGateway.org.uk and Morgan (1886).
Title: Roman Pavement found at Nether-Heyford.
Credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Author: Herman Moll
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No