Material Sources

The bulk of the artefactual material from Lullingstone is held by English Heritage either as part of the on-site displays at Lullingstone or in the regional archaeological store at Dover Castle.

Some key material is elsewhere, notably in the British Museum:

• the Christian wall-painting from the west wall of the house-church
• the wall-painting of a Chi-Rho, also from the house-church
• the busts of Pertinax and his father
• the Lullingstone hanging bowl, found in the 19th century in a Saxon grave near the villa.

Dartford Museum holds a limited amount of material, notably that derived from work by Brian Philp and the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit.

Visual Sources

Perhaps the key visual source is John Thorpe’s illustration of Lullingstane Chapel, which provides almost our only non-archaeological information on it:

• Thorpe, J, Custumale Roffense (London, 1788), pl xxiv, fig 3

Various maps illustrated in FA Ratcliffe, ‘Lullingstane c 400–1958’ 1958 (see Unpublished Work, below) show, or refer to Lullingstane, or Lullingstone Chapel:

• E Brown: ‘Lullingstone Chappell Demolish’d’ (1751) [text only]
• Andrews, Drury and Herbert, ‘Lullingstane Chapel’ (1769) [building marked]
• Hasted: Ruins of Lullingstane Chapel’ (1797) [church symbol shown].

Antiquarian Accounts and Excavation Reports

AJK, ‘Letter’, Gentleman’s Magazine, 93, Part 1 (1823), 577–80

Meates, GW, ‘The Lullingstone Roman Villa’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 66 (1953), 15–36

*Meates, GW, The Lullingstone Roman Villa, Volume I: The Site, Monograph Series of the Kent Archaeological Society 1 (Maidstone, 1979)

*Meates, GW, The Lullingstone Roman Villa, Volume II: The Wall Paintings and Finds, Monograph Series of the Kent Archaeological Society 3 (Maidstone, 1987)

Meates, GW, Greenfield, E and Birchenough, E, ‘The Lullingstone Roman Villa’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 63 (1950), 1–49

Meates, GW, Greenfield, E and Birchenough, E, ‘The Lullingstone Roman Villa’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 65 (1952), 26–78

*Neal, DS and Cosh, SR, ‘Lullingstone: Mosaics 361.1 and 361.2’, in Roman Mosaics of Britain, Volume III: South-East Britain Part 2, ed DS Neal and SR Cosh (London, 2009), 379–86

Philp, B and Chenery, M, ‘The Lullingstone Roman Villa Site, 1986’, in B Philp and M Chenery, Lullingstone and Shoreham: Discoveries at the Roman Villa Sites 1982–86, Kent Special Subject Series 16 (Dover, 2006)

Thorpe, J, Custumale Roffense (London, 1788), 126–8

Published Secondary Sources

Anon, ‘Recent museum acquisitions: the Lullingstone bowl (British Museum)’, Burlington Magazine, 100 (782) (1968), 274 and fig 67

Anon, ‘Lullingstone Man’, Kent Archaeological Review, 97 (1989), 145–6 and cover illustration

Anstee, JW, ‘The examination, interpretation and replication of an iron lock from Lullingstone Roman Villa’, Antiquaries Journal, 81 (2001), 395–400

Barrett, AA, ‘Knowledge of the literary classics in Britain’, Britannia, 9 (1978), 307–313 [accessed 5 March 2018; subscription required]

Beeson, A, ‘Pegasus the Wonder Horse and his portrayal on Romano-British mosaics’, Mosaic, 23 (1996), 18–23

Davey, N and Ling, R, Wall-Paintings in Roman Britain, Britannina Monograph 3 (London, 1981)

Davies, M, ‘Cabrianus, a Romano-British tile craftsman in Kent’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 124 (2004), 163–82

Detsicas, A, The Cantiaci (Gloucester, 1983)

Duncombe, WG (ed), Lullingstone 1659–1879, Farningham and Eynsford Local History Society Paper (1992)

Frend, WHC, ‘Religion in Roman Britain in the fourth century AD’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series, 18 (1995), 1–18

Frere, SS and Tomlin, RSO, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, vol 2: Instrumentum Domesticum, Fascicule 4 (Stroud, 1992) [RIB 2442–2480; Lullingstone is no. 2448.6]

Fulford, M, Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent (English Heritage guidebook, London, 2003)

Henig, M, Religion in Roman Britain (London, 1984)

Henig, M, The Art of Roman Britain (London, 1995)

Henig, M, ‘The Lullingstone mosaic: art, religion and letters in a fourth-century villa’, Mosaic, 24 (1997), 4–7

Henig, M, ‘The secret of the Lullingstone mosaic’, Kent Archaeological Review, 139 (2000), 196–7 [see also printer’s corrections to Henig’s paper in Kent Archaeological Review, 140 (2001?), 219]

Henig, M, ‘The victory gem from Lullingstone Roman Villa’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 160 (2007), 1–7

Kind, R de, ‘The Roman portraits from the villa of Lullingstone: Pertinax and his father P Helvius Successus’, in Otium: Festschrift fur Volker Michael Strocka, ed T Ganschow, M Steinhard, D Berges and T Frölich (Remshalden, 2005), 47–52

Lewis, MJT, Temples in Roman Britain (Cambridge, 1996)

Ling, RJ, ‘The seasons in Romano-British mosaic pavements’, Britannia, 14 (1983), 13–22 [accessed 5 March 2018; subscription required]

Meates, GW, Lullingstone Roman Villa (London, 1955)

Meates, GW, ‘The Lullingstone Roman Villa’, in Recent Archaeological Excavations in Britain, ed RLS Bruce-Mitford (London, 1956)

Meates, GW, Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent (Ministry of Public Buildings and Works guidebook, London, 1958)

Meates, GW, Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent (Ministry of Public Buildings and Works guidebook, London, 1963; reprinted 1970)

Meates, GW, ‘Early Christianity in the Darent valley’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 100 (1984), 57–64

*Millett, M, ‘Roman Kent’, in The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800, ed JH Williams (Woodbridge, 2007), 135–84

Neal, DS, Lullingstone Roman Villa, North-West Kent (English Heritage guidebook, London, 1991)

Painter, KS, ‘The Lullingstone wall-plaster: an aspect of Christianity in Roman Britain’, British Museum Quarterly, 33 (1968–9), 131–50

Perring, D, ‘Cellars and cults in Roman Britain’, Archaeological Journal, 146 (1989), 279–301

Perring, D, The Roman House in Britain (London, 2002)

Petts, D, Christianity in Roman Britain (Stroud, 2003)

Philp, B, ‘The lost chapel of Lullingstane’, Kent Archaeological Review, 78 (1984), 178–80

Philp, B, ‘Lullingstone – badger finds Roman burial’, Kent Archaeological Review, 80 (1985), 245–6

Philp, B, ‘The Lullingstone excavation: a view from the trenches’, Kent Archaeological Review, 170 (2007), 216–21

Radford, CAR, ‘Christian origins in Britain’, Medieval Archaeology, 15 (1971), 1–12

Rook, T, ‘Thoughts on Lullingstone Europa floor’, Kent Archaeological Review, 128 (1997), 177–80

Smith, DJ, ‘The mosaic pavements’, in The Roman Villa in Britain, ed ALF Rivet (London, 1969)

Smith, DJ, ‘Mythological figures and scenes in Romano-British mosaics’, in Roman Life and Art in Roman Britain, ed J Munby and M Henig, BAR British Series, 41:1 (1977), 105–93

Smith, DJ, ‘Regional aspects of the winged corridor villa in Britain’, in Studies in the Romano-British Villa, ed M Todd (Leicester, 1978), 117–47

Thomas, C, Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (London, 1981)

Toynbee, JMC, Art in Roman Britain (London, 1962)

Waddelove, E, ‘A Roman road along the Darent valley’, Kent Archaeological Review, 115 (1994), 126–31

Walthew, CV, ‘The town house and villa house in Roman Britain’, Britannia, 6 (1975), 189–205 [accessed 5 March 2018; subscription required]

Weatherhead, F, ‘The restoration of the Lullingstone Roman wall-plaster’, in Roman Provincial Wall Paintings of the Western Roman Empire, ed J Liversidge, BAR International Series, 140 (1982), 153–9

Wilson, P, ‘Excavations at Lullingstone Roman Villa and Richborough Castle’, Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter, 10 (1986), 6 [accessed 5 March 2013]

*Wilson, P, Lullingstone Roman Villa (English Heritage guidebook, London, 2009) [buy the guidebook]

Witts, P, ‘Mosaics and room function: the evidence of some fourth-century Romano-British villas’, Britannia, 31 (2000), 291–324 [accessed 5 March 2018; subscription required]

Witts, P, Mosaics in Roman Britain: Stories in Stone (Stroud, 2005)

Woodman, TC, ‘Roman mosaics in Kent’, Kent Archaeological Review, 46 (1976), 147–52

Unpublished Work

Anon, ‘An archaeological desk-based assessment of land at Lullingstone Roman Villa, Eynsford, Kent’ (2007) [typescript; copy held by English Heritage at Dover Castle]

Archer, T, Donaldson, K and Sabin, D, ‘Multi-technique geophysical survey at Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent’, Archaeological Surveys Ltd and Arrow Geophysics (2007)

Britt, L, ‘A re-interpretation of the tannage pit at Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent’ [undated typescript; copy held by English Heritage at Dover Castle]

Cobbett, R, ‘The Lullingstone boardgame’ (2006) [typescript; copy held by English Heritage at Dover Castle]

Foster, H, ‘A report on the compositional analysis of late Romano-British vessel glass from Lullingstone Villa, Kent and Portchester Castle, Hampshire’ (2005) [typescript; copy held by English Heritage at Dover Castle]

Neal, DS, ‘Lullingstone Roman Villa: a reappraisal of its architectural sequence’ (in prep)

Ratcliffe, FA, ‘Lullingstane c 400–1958’ (1958) [typescript; copy held by English Heritage at Dover Castle]

Ratcliffe, FA, ‘An index of Lullingstone place names’ (1960) [typescript; copy held by English Heritage at Dover Castle]

Ward, A, ‘An archaeological watching brief at Lullingstone Roman Villa, Lullingstone, Kent’ (2006)

READ MORE ABOUT LULLINGSTONE ROMAN VILLA

• History
• Significance
• Research

DOWNLOAD A PLAN OF LULLINGSTONE ROMAN VILLA

FIND MORE PROPERTY HISTORIES