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Upper School

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Click here to download the Latin
Curriculum Summaries.
Click here to visit the Roman Baths with Year 8
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The villa lies next to the River Darent by Eynsford (North of
Sevenoaks), and is one of 7 Roman villas known to have existed
in the area. It was part of an agricultural estate. As the villa
was built on the slope of a hill, soil slippage has helped to
preserve the remains. The villa was built about 80-90AD, developed
and expanded in the period 150-200AD (baths built; paintings in
cellar), and was possibly disused in the early 3rd century. There
was renewed prosperity between 275-350AD (baths expanded; main
entrance to cellar blocked; large granary and temple mausoleum
built.
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It became a Christian home between 350-425AD (reception rooms with
mosaic floors created; Christian chapel built over cellar; baths
out of use; granary also; villa possibly used only as a place of
worship). The villa was destroyed by fire about 425AD. Some of the
stone was plundered from the site during the medieval period.
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The Lullingstone Villa remains
were fully discovered in 1939. Excavations began in 1949. The site
was opened to the public in 1963. The villa is probably best known
for: a) its evidence of Christian worship, b) its spectacular mosaics
depicting Europa and the Bull, and Pegasus attacking the Chimaera,
and c) the wall painting of water nymphs in the cellar.
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Visitors are usually surprised by the swastikas in the mosaic
patterns, but in Roman times they were regarded as good luck symbols.
7.1 and 7.2 recently visited Lullingstone as part of their Latin
course. The villa is an hour’s coach journey from school.
The pupils spent 1½ hours at the site learning about it from
their teachers and the audio commentary provided by English Heritage.
Each pupil had a work-booklet containing a range of questions based
on observation. The children had been given the necessary background
information in class the day before the visit. Unusually there were
no other tourists on the site at that time, so we had it entirely
to ourselves. All agreed that it was a very enjoyable visit.
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