UNCOVERING the Woodchester Roman Pavement in 1973 was big news back in the day.

It is one of many Roman villas discovered in Gloucestershire and was occupied between the early 2nd and late 4th centuries AD.

Simon Gegg shared these photographs with the Facebook group Stroud Area Photographs and Cotswold Picture Postcards.

There is now nothing visible of the villa above ground and the site is occupied by a later churchyard.

The villa's most famous feature is the Orpheus mosaic, the second largest of its kind in Europe and one of the most intricate.

It dates to c. AD 325 and was re-discovered by Gloucestershire-born antiquarian Samuel Lysons in 1793.

It has been uncovered seven times since 1880, the last time in 1973, but there are no plans to reveal it again. It depicts Orpheus charming all forms of life with his lyre and has been praised for its accuracy and beauty.