Halberton's Roman villa - first discovery 2004 onwards

It has taken more than 20 years from when metal detectorist, John Hill, first found evidence of Roman coins and tesserae very close to the surface of a field belonging to Batten's Farm in Halberton, in 2004, for proper excavations to begin at the site to ascertain what exactly lies under the soil.

Devon County Council via the County Archaeologist commissioned a geophysical survey of the site. Community volunteers later found tiles, mosaic tesserae and roofing slates through coordinated fieldwalking and small-scale excavations.

Following further metal detecting finds, including further Roman coins and brooches, TAG did further field walking between 2012-2015 which revealed tile, tesserae and slate assumed to be associated with a probable Romano-British structure.

In 2019, investigative excavations were carried out by the Tiverton Archaeological Group (TAG), Sampford Peverell Society (SPS) and the Halberton History Group and these particularly benefitted from the work of Isabel Richardson, Shirley Blaylock, Stephen and Elizabeth Armstrong, Harriet Coulter and Glyn Davies.

During May and June 2021, an archaeological trench excavation, comprising thirteen trenches, was undertaken by AC archaeology on land at Battens Farm, Halberton, Devon. The investigation was funded by The National Heritage Lottery Fund and undertaken as part of a series of archaeological investigations in conjunction with the Tiverton Archaeological Group (TAG) and Devon County Council Historic Environment Team (DCCHET).

From the 2021 excavations, the conclusions were that there was at least one stone built Roman building - a villa- with probably two further, probably contemporary, stone buildings of unknown function, located in a ditched compound.

One of the most exciting early finds was the mosaic; a partially surviving mosaic floor. This mosaic is polychromatic, which makes it the furthest west mosaic of this type discovered so far in Britain.

This makes a third Roman villa confirmed in Devon, with the other two being Downes villa, Crediton and Honeyditches villa, Seaton.

Halberton's villa is rectangular, typically conforming to the winged corridor type. It measures 35m x 10m. It had a number of phases of extension over the time of the occupation.

Other finds recovered: pottery, tesserae, coins, roof slate, ceramic material / tiles, iron slag.

The finds have suggested an occupation period of mid  2nd century AD to the 4th century AD.

It is unclear whether the site was deliberately demolished when occupation ceased. There are many robber trenches in evidence and the Breccia building stone was taken for use elsewhere. The remains have suffered greatly from plough damage, hence the drive to discover as much as possible about this fantastic site.

Subsequently, the two local societies collaborated with a larger partner, University of Exeter, to apply to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to save Halberton Roman villa. A full excavation of the villa buildings and a multi-year community research project (2025–2030), thanks to funding from the National Lottery.

Thus the SHARE (Saving Halberton's Ancient Roman Environment) project was born.