It derives from the Old English for “valley of a river called Turce”, with Turce or Twrch being a lost Celtic river name, possibly meaning boar. Turkdean is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, approximately 30 km to the east of Gloucester. Find out about shinbun kanji services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development. Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.
Suggesting that this would be an excellent site for a television programme. Arrangements were duly set in place and the evidence of the cropmarks was confirmed by a trial geophysical survey in March 1997. Intriguingly, the house was not destroyed after the collapse of the Roman empire, said Roberts.
This part of the geophysical survey lasted from August of 1997 to May of 1998 and was divided into two phases, which covered the total area of 6.3 hectares researched at half-meter intervals. Findings of the two phases of the survey did not differ essentially in quality thanks to relatively even and similar field and weather conditions. As mentioned above, Turkdean Roman Villa has been discovered as an archeological site of great importance and interest quite recently. However, there had existed suppositions about the existence of some ancient building or construction at the site before the start of the archeological investigations in 1997. Hence, a farmer and owner of the land plot named Wilf Mustoe made a sketch of the site with an accurate description of main rooms and corridors inside the villa, as well as adjacent buildings and courtyards in 1976.
Hence, the aim of the second phase of the archeological investigations was the clarification of the previous findings and expansion of the area investigated so that more information about the villa complex could be gathered and learnt. The main villa complex is built around three courtyards, the whole being approximately 120 x 75m; the courtyards are aligned on roughly north/south axis, with the inner courtyard to the north. The inner and middle courtyards are separated by a cross range, with access through it, whilst a gateway leads from the middle courtyard to the southern outer courtyard. Around the exterior of the villa on the north, east and west sides is a perimeter wall, defining the compound.
There is evidence for a central entrance or gatehouse within the range, 6m wide. On the western side of the outer courtyard is a building or room measuring 16m by 9m; a spread of rubble on the eastern side of the courtyard suggests the presence of further structures. The central or cross range is defined by northern and southern external walls 15m apart, with a spread of rubble between them; there are at least three rooms in this range. Across the centre is a rectangular room, 6m wide internally, and spanning the range, with a slight projection beyond the southern wall; at the southern end of this room is an infilled pool. The pool was lined with red-painted plaster, and had a flagged stone floor; there is a step on the northern wall. A fragment of a stone roof finial was retrieved from demolition rubble in this area.
