Qualla: Wanstead Roman Villa https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Wanstead Roman Villa https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa Wanstead Roman Villa: Introduction https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa/ Photo credit Diomedes1962, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1715 a man named Adam Holt was digging holes for an avenue of trees in the grounds of Wanstead House, a great Palladian pile a few miles east of London. He had reached this particular gentle gravelly rise, sloping south, when his spade turned up something that did not belong - small squared brick pieces in black and white and red. Tesserae. Roman mosaic tiles. He stopped, stared, and tried to convince his employer Sir Richard Child to let him excavate properly. Permission was refused. The avenue had to be planted on schedule. Holt examined what he could in haste - the pavement was about twenty feet north to south and sixteen east to west, with a foot-wide border, and in the centre the figure of a man riding upon some beast and holding something in his hand. Then the tree-planting holes went straight through it. Within days the mosaic was gone.

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Image: Diomedes1962 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/u10j-wanstead-roman-villa-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wanstead Roman Villa: Empire on the Marshes https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa/ Photo credit Diomedes1962, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Romans landed in Britain in June 43 CE - a force of 45,000 men under generals including the future Emperor Vespasian - they fought a two-day battle against an army of 150,000 Britons at the River Medway, then crossed the Thames and pushed inland. The local tribes around ...

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Image: Diomedes1962 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/u10j-wanstead-roman-villa-empire-on-the-marshes.mp3 0:06 2 full Wanstead Roman Villa: Adam Holt, More Than a Gardener https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa/ Photo credit Diomedes1962, CC BY-SA 4.0. Adam Holt was christened in 1689 at St Botolph's Aldgate and buried at Wanstead in 1750. He is described in the records as a gardener, which understates him. He was a surveyor, a nurseryman, a canal engineer, a drainage contractor and a leading specialist in the cultivation of au...

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Image: Diomedes1962 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/u10j-wanstead-roman-villa-adam-holt-more-than-a-gardener.mp3 0:06 3 full Wanstead Roman Villa: The Antiquarian and His Letters https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa/ Photo credit Diomedes1962, CC BY-SA 4.0. Smart Lethieullier (1701-1760), owner of the adjacent Aldersbrook Manor, wrote two letters to the Society of Antiquaries in London that constitute almost everything we know about what Holt found. The first letter, dated 12 July 1735 and addressed to Roger Gale, described the pave...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/u10j-wanstead-roman-villa-the-antiquarian-and-his-letters.mp3 0:06 4 full Wanstead Roman Villa: Coins, Urns, and a Mausoleum https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa/ Photo credit Diomedes1962, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the summer of 1746, Lord Tilney was making further alterations to the park and his workmen brought Lethieullier word: more discoveries, near the site of the lost pavement. Lethieullier walked over and found fragments of several urns of the coarsest earth, some still holding te...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/u10j-wanstead-roman-villa-coins-urns-and-a-mausoleum.mp3 0:06 5 full Wanstead Roman Villa: What Lies Beneath the Park https://qualla.com/wanstead-roman-villa/ Photo credit Diomedes1962, CC BY-SA 4.0. The exact locations of Holt's pavement and Lethieullier's burial site have been lost. Jack Elsden Tuffs did further archaeological work in the 1960s without confirming the precise findspots. In February 2007 a limited ground-penetrating radar survey ran a north-south line through...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/j/wanstead-roman-villa-wp/u10j-wanstead-roman-villa-what-lies-beneath-the-park.mp3 0:06 6 full