Y4 visited Crofton Roman Villa in Orpington. We were thrilled to learn about and see the remains of this actual Roman villa which was discovered by accident in 1926, when local workmen were constructing driveways for the new council offices. This villa was inhabited from about AD 140 to 400 and was the centre of a large farming estate. The remains include tiled (tessellated) floors and the under-floor heating system (a hypocaust).
We enjoyed making different designs using tesserae (small square tiles used for mosaics) and we used crayons to make rubbings depicting different soldiers in the Roman army. It was great learning about Roman life from the artefacts discovered on the site and we even saw some paw prints set in clay which were probably made by a cat when the villa was being constructed!
