PARK STREET
Hertfordshire, England.
Roman villa W of the river Ver and Watling Street, 3.6 km S of Verulamium (q.v.). It was excavated in 1943-45
(dwelling) and 1954-57 (subsidiary buildings). The site
was occupied in the earlier and later Iron Age, and
the fact that the Roman house was built directly over
three successive Belgic structures (the latest, a pair of
rectangular huts dated A.D. 43-60) indicates continuity.
Four Roman periods were distinguished. In the first
(late 1st c.) a simple rectangular house (19.8 x 6.9 m)
with footings of good masonry, was erected. This was
divided into five rooms and had a cellar at its N end,
approached by an external stair; a wooden-shuttered
well was sunk 6 m to the E. In the second period (mid
2d c.) the house was greatly enlarged by the addition of
a corridor on the W and further rooms on the N and S,
to give an over-all size of at least 33.6 by 15 m; a channeled hypocaust (corn-drier?) was inserted in the room next to the cellar. This house appears to have fallen into decay and in the third period (ca. 300) extensive rebuilding was undertaken and many modifications made, including the insertion of three channeled hypocausts or corn-driers.
In the fourth period (ca. 340) the stairway to the
cellar was filled in, probably being replaced by a ramp
on the E, and a fire occurred in the cellar itself. There
were no coins later than 360 and the villa appears to
have been abandoned in the late 4th c. Subsidiary
buildings included a bath block, 34.5 m NE of the house,
constructed in the mid 2d c. and rebuilt ca. 300 to give
over-all dimensions of 18.5 by 17.1 m; a small two-roomed building with pillared hypocaust 13.5 m SE of
the house, attributed to the first period; another small
building, 63 m SE of the house, related to periods 1-3;
and a group of indeterminate timber structures near the
Ver, with possible traces of a timber aqueduct. Two burials in lead-lined stone coffins, enclosed by walls, were found N of the bath block. The villa was never rich—there was no trace of mosaics—and along with Lockleys
it has been taken as a type site for the smaller class of
villa common in SE Britain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. O'Neil,
ArchJ 102 (1945) 21-110
MPI; A. D. Saunders, ibid. 118 (1961) 100-35
MPI.
A.L.F. RIVET
