The idea of the traditional Roman villa – a luxurious country house, surrounded by gardens, olive groves, farms and orchards – was soon adopted by wealthy Britons. Villas were built at the centres of rural estates. South-west England had rich farming land, and improvements in agricultural techniques in the late 3rd century AD meant that country estates were profitable. Besides growing crops and raising animals, estates sometimes had flourmills, orchards and bees for honey. Estate farms provided food for the towns, and produced wool and leather for trade.

In spite of social and economic turmoil, the 4th century was a prosperous period in the South West. The Cotswolds had more than 40 villa estates, some with very grand buildings: the villa complex at Woodchester in Gloucestershire had at least 65 rooms. The owners of these villas were consumers as well as producers and used them to display their wealth, installing central heating and bath houses and decorating the floors and walls.

When the Romans withdrew in the 5th century, and towns and roads began to decline, the great estates could not survive. Many of the buildings were pulled down, wooden structures or enclosures for stock replaced some of them, but most of the land reverted to smallholdings.