Some Roman settlers and important Britons built villas - Mediterranean-style country houses. Two villas have been excavated by archaeologists in Staffordshire - Hales and Engleton. Through excavation we know what these houses looked like and how people lived.

Roofs were made of baked ceramic tiles. Tegula tiles fitted together in rows to make the roof surface, with imbrex tiles used in overlapping rows to cover and waterproof the joints of the tegula tiles. The imbrex tiles were plugged with a ceramic antefix at the edge of the roof, which were sometimes decorated.

Many Roman villas had a below floor heating system called a hypocaust. The floor was supported on stacks of tiles (pilae) and hot air was circulated under the floor from a furnace stoked outside the building. Hot air and smoke escaped through flues of box tiles set in the wall and plastered over. Only the best rooms and bath houses had heating. See picture below

 
A Roman Hypocaust (Illustration by Roy Fern)

 
Roman Lamps and Keys on display in our Archaeology Gallery

Pottery lamps were used to light rooms after dark. The lamps had a small chamber containing the oil, with a filling hole, a nozzle that held the wick and sometimes a handle. Burning torches and candles were also used.

 
Roman lock assembly (Illustration by Roy Fern)

People were aware of the need for security in their homes, so they used keys and locks made of metal on their doors. The key had projections which matched the holes on the bolt and it pushed tumblers out of the bolt securing the door. A slide key from a tumbler lock and bolt fragments with teeth for a key were found at Rocester.

Many people also lived in new towns that had been built close to forts, although most people lived in small farmsteads that differed little from those of the preceding Iron Age.