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Question
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I would be very gratefull for information about your holdings in relation to the discovery of the Pitmead villa site, Warminster, in 1778, and about Katherine Downes, Rev. Massey, and the landowner.
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Question asked on
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10 July 2004
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Answer
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There is really very little recorded about the Pit Meads Roman villa and unfortunately the site itself was destroyed around 200 years ago.
In the spring of 1785 a farmer at Norton Bavant oncovered a pattern of coloured stones, which was apparently the first mosaic on the site. In the same year a local lady, Catherine Downs, paid workmen to dig in Pit Meads field and they found a mosaic that was 60 feet long. A week after its discovery a clown from a small travelling fair or circus that was camped nearby tried to steal it and managed to destroy it. In 1786 the owner of the field, Lord Bath, became interested and had workmen digging there in 1786. They found a third mosaic, which Lord Weymouth, his son, removed and transferred to Longleat House. Around 1800 the Heytesbury archaeologist, William Cunnington, found a fourth mosaic.
Cunnington's finds are in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum at Devizes and it would be worthwhile contacting the Wiltshire Archaeological Society. I am afraid that I cannot trace the Rev. Massey or his part in this.
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Bibliography
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Pit Meads Roman Villa near Norton Bavant, by Andrew Houghton. Warminster History Society, 1994
