Brading Roman Villa

The only record I can find of this place (http://www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk/) at the other place is from July 28th 2008, but I feel sure that we must have been since then.

If not, we have certainly made up in the last couple of weeks, making no less than three visits. The first visit to look at the villa, which I must say was a little dissappointing on this occasion, despite the interesting mosaics. Not too keen on the rather Osborne/Brain Surgery for Dummies style of presentation, but BH assures me that it is just the ticket for young children.

They had an interesting line in books for sale, including among the sort of National Trust and light archaeology stuff that you might expect, a number of oddities, perhaps sourced from some specialist remainder operation. For example, a fattish paperback providing a cross reference between the common and scientific name for the mammals of the land. Nothing else, no pictures or narrative, just the cross reference, about one inch of it.

The second and third visits were to their café, a fine place on a fine day. Cool and spacious, with fine views over the downs down to the sea. There is a terrace for sun-lovers and smokers. There are excellent cakes, said to be made on the premises. Only marred by Classical FM being piped in, without charge and which may be classical, but which was just as irritating as piped music anywhere else, not least because of the frequent and breathless advertisements. One can only suppose that the staff get fed up with the conversations of the customers with their predictable comments about the villa and its facilities and drown them out with the radio.

An excellent place for tea and cake, but a place which was probably the death knell of any attempt to provide such a thing in Brading proper, rather as Exminster Golf Club is killing off the food & drink trade in the village proper.

They also offer fine films of an evening and car boot sales of a Sunday: they are clearly making full use of the planning dispensations granted to diversifications at rural operations (our nearest operation of the same kind being Chessington Garden Centre, once a nursery, now more or less a lower grade department store). To which comment their response would no doubt be 'no diversification, no villa'. I just hope that the tail does not end up wagging the dog.