Visited Witcombe R***n V***a and Birdlip Camp on 29.3.2009. Sitting in the sunshine at the Villa, the proximity to the two Iron Age settlements at Crickley and Birdlip is striking. The villa was constructed originally during the first century AD, during the early years of the occupation. Evidence of late Iron Age habitation and funerary practices has been found at Crickley and at Barrow Wake, which lies between Crickley and Birdlip.
Crickley had been an important high-status centre for 4,000 years by the time the Romans came, so the builders of the villa must have been able to impress their friends with the view of these former bastions of power.