<img alt="" media_type="null" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/105842739_1784050396293867_r.jpg" width="100%" />
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I am Steven Cockings, Chairman of the Bedford Roman Villa Project.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Over the last 16 years we have been responsible for a community project bringing together various organisations, schools, and members of the public, all supervised by professional archaeologists donating their time for free.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This has been with the assistance of the Mayor of Bedford and Bedford Borough Councillors, along with Albion Archaeology, the Gale Family Trust, Bedford School, BizSpace, and, most importantly, the landowners, RCH Care Homes.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Our mission: to excavate one of Bedfordshire’s only known Roman villas located on the outskirts of Bedford. This has involved investigating what may have been the east and west wings of the villa, including the villa’s bath house.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Last year we uncovered what may be part of the northern range of our villa. While there is evidence for some internal rooms, a significant part of the building is made up of a large aisled hall whose roof was supported by columns.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This was attached to a south-facing veranda, fronted by a gravelled courtyard, much of which is still in place.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This was an exciting development, which captured the imagination of the local community, and was also covered by the BBC.
</div>
<div><br />
</div><img alt="" media_type="null" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/105842739_1784483432102770_r.png" width="100%" />
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We are now hoping to dig further trenches over this northern range to better understand its internal arrangement.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The dates for this year’s excavations are Saturday, September 26th to Sunday, October 11th.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>As to the importance of this site, it has the only known example of bas relief stucco work in the whole of the United Kingdom. As a consequence, it is a unique find of national significance.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This is the type of elaborate, hand-carved plaster decoration that is common in the Roman town houses and thermal baths of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but extremely rare in the Western Roman Empire outside of Italy,
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This suggests that Bedford Roman villa was possibly the most lavishly decorated building in late Roman Britain, and is consistent with it being the headquarters of a massive imperial estate centre located along the Ouse valley, growing grain for the armies of Britain and the Rhine during the late 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Roman writers like Ammianus Marcellinus and Emperor Julian confirm that a massive fleet of up to 800 ships was used to transport British corn to feed the Rhine garrisons,
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Such was our villa’s significance that, even with the decline of the Roman empire in the latter 4th century, window glass was still being imported all the way from Egypt to put in its windows.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Given the national and international importance of this site we have a duty to publish our results and make them available to the widest audience possible
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><br />
</div><img alt="" media_type="null" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/105842739_1784057630873433_r.jpg" width="100%" />
<div><br />
</div>
<div>As a consequence, funds raised from this campaign will not only help finance this year’s excavations, they will also pay experts to write specialist reports on our archaeological finds covering our 16 years of excavations.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>These will then be collated and published in book form, and conclusions drawn about the role of our villa complex within the north-western Roman empire. While academic in origin, this illustrated volume will use language that members of the general public will easily be able to engage with.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>All donations are welcome, no matter how small!
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I hope that you will be able to support our campaign by sharing our video and link on GoFundMe. This is a crowdfunding platform, so we need to attract hundreds of backers to be able to move forward with this project.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Mr. Steven Cockings MA,
</div>
<div>Chairman,
</div>
<div>Bedford Roman Villa Project.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><br />
</div><img alt="" media_type="null" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/105842739_1784053895996200_r.png" width="100%" />

Lynn Savage

Eamonn McGuinness

Stella Jones

Diana Jennings

Naomi Hennessy

david pinder

Anneli Howard

Helen Rose

Alison Symonds

Anonymous

Bob Twells

Frances Maynard

Charles R Baily

Terry Blake

Clive Thacker

Justin Leahy

Ian Forsdike

Henry Vann

Trevor Roston

Bedford Roman Villa Project - Book & Dig 2026

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Eligible for Profile Comment Badge

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

isEligibleForProfileCommentBadge

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Bedford Roman Villa Project - Book & Dig 2026

Still £18,795 to go. Help us build momentum.