Doors to open on Wroxeter's Roman villa site

Video: Professor Dai Morgan Evans talks about the Wroxeter Roman villa

This is the first glimpse of a completed Roman villa built for a Channel 4 TV documentary series at a Shropshire heritage site, which will open to the public this weekend.

Many people who have been watching the show Rome Wasn't Built in a Day on Thursday nights will have been following how the Villa Urbana at Wroxeter Roman City came together.

And the media were today given a sneak preview of the impressive Roman-style town house, which was based on a villa at Wroxeter - or Viroconium as it was known in Roman times - which was excavated near to where the new building stands.

Professor Dai Morgan Evans, who designed the villa and features on the TV show, was also present at today's gathering.

The house is set to open to visitors to Wroxeter on Saturday when people will be able to have a look inside and see how Roman's would have lived at the site 2,000 years ago.

Tours will be taking place throughout this weekend and next weekend.

A spokesman for English Heritage said: "When the town house opens on Saturday, it will give visitors a fascinating insight into the construction techniques used in this period. The walls of one room have been left in a variety of stages of completion, so that visitors can see what lies beneath the rendering and fresco finishes."

Tours will take place hourly on Saturday and Sunday from 10.30am until 3.30pm.