We had the opportunity of seeing the Villa Ventorum, a Roman archaeological site in the grounds of the Newt, the luxury hotel just south of Bruton, with Ric Weeks, the extremely well-informed, on-site archaeologist who has overseen much of it.

It’s an impressive project, based on meticulous archaeology run by the Oxford Archaeological Unit under the auspices of the Southwest Heritage Trust and then equally meticulous architectural reconstruction by Nicola du Pisanie of Stonewood Design, the design arm of Stonewood, high quality local building contractors based in Castle Combe.  It is all done to an incredibly high specification, including hand-made tiles from Italy to replace the initial machine-made tiles.

This is the reconstructed villa:-

The fresco of the Roman emperor is based on the Prince of Wales:-

And the Empress is riding behind with Prince Harry:-

The kitchen is strangely modern because so many kitchen implements are based on antique prototypes (I don’t doubt the care which has gone into the reconstruction):-

The reconstruction of the frigidarium looked to me more neoclassical than antique – not surprising since so many neoclassical interiors were based on what survives in Pompeii and Herculaneum:-

Outside is the herb garden:-

South of the archaeological site is a new museum.  We would have liked more time to linger.  Again, it was extremely impressive, done to meticulous high standards by Kossmandejong, Dutch exhibition designers.  I would recommend that the newly appointed Director of the British Museum pays an early visit.