Roman mosaic at Folkestone, Kent

Canterbury Archaeological Trust ^ | September 19, 2022 | Press Release, admin76749

[SunkenCiv]

The remains of a Roman mosaic floor covered-over some 65 years ago has been re-exposed on Folkestone’s East Cliff. The mosaic belongs to a large Roman villa built during the second century AD. The villa complex had more than fifty rooms and included two bath-suites.

Much of the villa site was excavated and laid out as a tourist attraction during the 1920s but the cost of upkeep led to the remains being reburied by Folkestone Council in 1957. For the original Roman owners of the villa there were fine views across the English Channel from their grand mansion but the clay cliffs upon which the villa stands are not stable and continuing coastal erosion means that this important Roman site is in danger of slowly falling into the sea over the course of the next one hundred years. Several rooms of a bath-suite have already been lost since they were first excavated...

Underneath the Roman villa traces of earlier buildings relating to the late Iron Age have been discovered – the villa had been placed on a site occupied by native Britons for centuries before the Roman invasion. Mr Parfitt believes that in many ways the pre-Roman remains are of even more importance than the villa – but these early structures are much harder to identify, having mostly been of made timber and thatch which has long since decayed. Such remains were largely missed by the excavators of the 1920s.

...excavations over the last few days have shown that a significant amount of the mosaic still remains. It would seem that there had been some subsequent restoration of what was exposed during the original 1920s work and these recent repairs helped stabilise what remained of the Roman design. Much of the southern half of the mosaic survives.

[SunkenCiv]

Roman mosaic at Folkestone, Kent

[SunkenCiv]