Set on a low rise overlooking the Caldicot Levels, next to the M4 and the Severn Bridge, this enigmatic site has been known since first detected from the air in the 1950s. Apart from photographs of the site in the Cambridge University Collection (CUCAP) there are others in the J. Sorrell Collection and the Royal Commission archives. There has been considerable debate as to its date: a Romano-British origin has long been favoured and what may swing it in favour of such a date is the presence on photographs taken on 6th July 2018 of a rectangular stone building on a north-west'south-east alignment set within.
The aerial photographs show three sides of a sharp-angled, bivallate rectangular enclosure, measuring 123 m north-east'south-west by c.100 m north-west'south-east, with a narrow outer ditch ? possibly a palisade or fence footing ? and a broad inner ditch 4-5 m wide. The broad inner ditch cannot be traced on the south-western side where the enclosure may be open save for the narrow perimeter ditch. The southern corner of the site is truncated by the line of the M4 motorway to the Second Severn Crossing. It is possible that the south-eastern side of the enclosure is fossilised ? or buried ? by the current field boundary. There are faint indications of a possible smaller, inner square bivallate enclosure c. 60 m square, with the footings of the villa on its south-west edge.
The villa measures 19 m long north-west'south-east by 9 m and is represented by a simple rectangular parch-mark with no internal room divisions visible. However a parched wall line extending north-east, away from the eastern corner of the villa, suggests the presence of a wing on the north-east side of the building, facing into the open space of the villa enclosure. A detailed geophysical survey of this interesting enclosure is now highly desirable.


Sources: St Joseph in the Journal of Roman Studies 43 (1953), 95
Robinson (ed.) 'Biglis, Caldicot & Llandough', BAR British series 188 (1988), xiv-xv
Parkhouse & Lawler in Archaeology in Wales 30 (1990), 37-9

T. Driver, RCAHMW, 2019