The Roman Villa and the Summer House at Wadeford

The following extract concerning the Roman Villa site at Wadeford was taken from:

Mate's Illustrated Chard by F.J. Snell, Esq., M.A. (official Guide 1903)
 

The Roman Villa, Wadeford

In 1810, were accidently exposed in making a ditch two tesselated pavements of beautiful design and elaborate workmanship, but the patterns, at first very perfect with the colours fresh and vivid, were soon despoiled by the depredations of visitors. In the first winter the surfaces were lifted by frost, and in the succeeding thaw the whole fell to pieces. In 1854, new excavations were made, and the villa was found to consist of five rooms, one of which was apparently the entrance hall, with several pillars on either side. At some distance higher up the mead was the furnace whence hot water was conveyed by pipe to the villa, largely for bathing purposes. The business of the Romans in this neighbourhood was to collect minerals, and the person who lived at Wadeford villa was probably a local inspector of mines, who would have a country house with a farm behind it, and a large staff of labourers under him. When disengaged from business, these people indulged in pleasures of the chase and in field sports. They hunted for badgers and foxes, pretty certainly pursued the red deer, and perhaps also the wild boar. Among the debris of the villa have been found part of the back of a short-horn ox, a bone of a horse, the antlers of a red deer, the jaw of a lamb, and a bone of a pig - all items of a Roman bill of fare. At home the Romans amused themselves much as we do. They had their tennis courts, which were on a smaller scale than ours, and they took extreme delight in their games, of which they had a considerable variety.
 

During a recent visit to Wadeford, Mr. John Brow showed us a Roman gold coin of the reign of Valentianus (born A.D. 371), found about thirty years ago in another part of the parish, and now in his possession.
 

The following is an extract from Mates Illustrated Chard concerning the Wadeford Summer House or Folly

We are standing in Home Field Mead (Wadeford) with our faces towards the Roman Villa, which is covered by the green sod. For a moment it seems as if that, and that alone, has a claim upon our attention, but all at once we become aware of a summer-house perched under a tuft of trees on the hill-side away to our left. This, too, has a history, though much more modern. it seems that about a hundred years ago (c. 1800) there lived at Wadeford, a woollen merchant named Pike, who bought this summer-house when Lord Chatham's property at Burton Pynaent was sold, and re-erected in its present position. The same Mr. Pike was charged with forging the broad arrow and tried for his life. He employed Erskiue as his council, and was acquitted. In his joy at his escape, he caused to be struck a commemorative medal, which appears to have been freely distributed amongst his friends and neighbours.
 

The following is an extra from "Somerset Stories" by Robin Bush (1990) concerning the Summer House

Sir William Pynsent, second Baronet from Urchfont in Wiltshire, married the heir to the Burton estate near Curry Rivel. He moved their to enjoy his wife's inheritance and served as Whig Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1715 to 1722. His wife, only son and three daughters died before him. Contempories considered his "manners were eccentric, his morals lay under odious imputations, but his fidelity to his political opinions were unalterable", and " he had parts and humour, not many scruples, living to her death with his only daughter in pretty notorious incest". He drew up his will leaving his lands at Burton to William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham. There is no official explanation why he did this rather eccentric move. Although there is no record that he ever met Pitt it was reported in "The Western Flying Post" after his death at the age of 85 years in 1765 that he saw him as "a good patriot and wishes well to his country."
Local legend much prefers the story that he did it because Pitt opposed the proposed Cider Tax the same as any self-respecting Somerset inhabitant would do. Today as you journey in the region of Curry Rival you can see the Tuscan column, 140 ft. tall, that Pitt had built in memory or Sir William Pynsent and "Somerset's Monument to Cider Drinking". At Wadeford you can see the summer-house" temple" bought by Mr. Pike from the Earl of Chatham's sale of the Burton- Pynsent Estate at the beginning of the 1800's.