Our Collection

The Brading Roman Villa collection came into being upon the discovery of the villa in 1879 by Captain John Thorpe and the excavations in 1880-1883 by F.G. Hilton Price and John E. Price. Victorian visitors were encouraged to view the villa and by 1908 a cover building was erected to help preserve the site and its remains.

The collection holds over 100,000 artefacts, mainly from the time of Roman occupation in Britain but there are also items from the Neolithic (stone age), Iron Age and Victorian periods. The villa and artefacts show a wonderful snapshot of Romano-British life over nearly 400 years of Roman rule, showing us many similarities and differences to modern day living such as board games, jewelry, farming instruments and even underfloor heating.

Recently the collection has been added to by the acquisition of Roman coin hoards and a brooch found locally on the Island. Through these new artefacts we hope to enhance the story of the villa and the people that were living on the Island during this time.