Walk in the footsteps of Romans at Chedworth Roman Villa

Ever wondered what 4th-century Roman England looked like? Head to Chedworth, just outside Cirencester, and you’ll get a pretty good idea.

This place is home to one of the country’s largest Roman villas, complete with elaborate mosaics, two bathhouses and even a latrine (which is also ‘aesthetically pleasing’, in its own way). Get a sense of just how civilised our Roman cousins were, with interactive displays and evidence of flushing loos and toilet paper. They even had under-floor heating, for goodness’ sake; it’s only taken the rest of us about 17 centuries to catch up.

At the other end of the civilised spectrum, you can watch gladiators battling it out to the bitter end – well a re-enactment anyway. And after you’ve finished admiring the dining quarters and the water shrine – fed by a natural spring that’s still running in its 4th-century stone channel – why not take a step back and admire the villa from the wooded Cotswold countryside that surrounds it? It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to picture the place just as it was for those inventive Romans – with their under-floor heating.