OSMap: LR177
Type: 2 Temples, Villa.
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NGRef: TQ5265 OSMap: LR177 Type: 2 Temples, Villa. |
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The portico of this "temple" measured 40 feet square with walls 2 feet thick, the inner "cella" measured 21 feet by 17 feet with walls 2½ feet thick; many voussior-stones of chalk point to a domed ceiling above the cella. The building faced south and was built c.AD300 but by c.400 had fallen into decay, its roof collapsed and its furnishings rifled. (Type Ib)
"This was a temple only in the sense that the cult of the dead was carried on in it, but as in plan and architecture it is identical with a Romano-Celtic temple, and as such worship of the dead was one of the roots from which the Romano-Celtic temple sprang, Lullingstone is included [among the square Romano-Celtic temples]." (Lewis 1966, pp.2/3)
This round building, 17½ ft. in outside diameter with walls only 1¼ ft. thick, had a roughly-tessallated floor and an entrance approached by a stairway on the east. The western part of the building held a rectangular area, screened-off from the rest of the interior by a plastered and painted partition, which may have served as a cella or sanctuary; a supposition which is supported by the building's east-west orientation. This suspected temple lies just north of the stone-built Hadrianic villa and was contemporary with it.
