Rare chance to go inside Dorchester’s Roman Town House

FOR JUST six hours visitors will be allowed to walk across the mosaic floors of Dorchester’s Roman Town House.

The ancient tesselated pavements of the best preserved Roman Town house in Britain can normally only be seen through the windows of a modern protective structure.

But this August – between 2 and 4pm on Wednesdays 11, 18 and 25 – the doors will be opened.

Because the mosaics are fragile, visitors must wear suitable footwear. That means no heels.

Admission is free but donations are welcome.

The house can only be opened up because volunteers have agreed both to supervise and to answer questions about its mosaics, its underfloor heating system and its history.

Dead babies

Its history is fascinating.

The buildings were uncovered in 1937.

The First Interim Report on The Excavations at Colliton Park at Dorchester, 1937-38 was quickly written up by Lt Col C D Drew and K C Collingwood Selby and their words still palpitate with surprise – though very much in the style of the time.

“It was a dwelling house of some importance and from its style must have been built by people of position and means.”

The authors also express no qualms about the Romans’ bloody imperial conquest of Britain, as evidenced by the skeletons uncovered earlier in the 1930s at Maiden Castle.

“The advantages of Roman rule, with its comfort and security, were demonstrated to a newly conquered people by the establishment of a well-ordered town [Durnovaria] in the vicinity of their old stronghold, a town which was the centre of the civil adminstration of the district, of trade, and from which would spread the ever growing waves of Roman thought and culture.”

What shocks the authors is the evidence they uncovered of the house’s – and the Roman Empire’s – decline and fall.

“It is evident that the mansion degenerated into a slum, whose tenants treated it with scant respect. They knocked holes in the floors, some for the burial of their unwanted infants, and they built a ramshackle fireplace, partly of broken roof-slabs, for their cooking.

“One cannot say how long their tenancy lasted, but it is probable that it was not long before the end came… it is probable that the house was completely abandoned by the end of the 4th century.”

The bones of three babies were found in shallow graves.

Editor’s note: The Town House is tucked away behind County Hall in the centre of Dorchester. The county council’s advice is to use town centre car parks and walk to the site. The best approach is to follow the route of the Roman Walls, along West Walks and enter the site to rear of County Hall.