TRIPONTIUM – A ROMANO-BRITISH SETTLEMENT IN THE BRITISH MIDLANDS Irene Glendinning, BSc, MBSA, CEng, CITP Secretary Rugby Archaeological Society irene@coventry.ac.uk
Background Tripontium, the place of the three bridges, was located at Cave’s Inn, close to the centre of England, five miles to the east of what is now the town of Rugby in Warwickshire. The settlement would have been well established within ten years of the Roman invasion of England AD 43, because its location suggests that it served as one of the mutationes (relay stations) close to the defensive military zone, which was established by Aulus Plautius and maintained during the period from AD 43 to AD 47 (Lucas, 1997 pp 6-10).
Figure 2: Part of the British Section of the Antonine Itinerary (adapted from Ordnance Survey, 1978)
Fig 1: The Plautian Defensive Zone AD 43-47
Tripontium straddled the main arterial road leading north from the Roman capital Verulamium (St Albans). The Saxons later called this road Watling Street. The present A5 road still follows substantially the same line as the Roman road for much of its route. Tripontium was included in the second, sixth and eighth Antonine Itineraries. Of these only Iter VI had Tripontium as a stopping place. This itinerary located Tripontium ten miles north of Bannaventa (Whilton Lodge) and eight miles south of Venonae (High Cross) (Lucas, 1997).
nº 5, Enero 2008
Despite the accuracy of this third century AD record, there was much speculation about the true location of the settlement (Bloxham, 1884). The on-going debate and evidence was well summarised by RES Tanner in his paper in the Rugby School National History Society Report dating to 1939 (Tanner, 1940), providing background to excavations conducted that year by Rugby School students in the area of Cave’s Inn. The location of Tripontium was later established definitively by systematic excavation starting in the 1960s by Rugby Archaeological Society (RAS). The Society was founded in 1961 by a group of local amateur archaeologists, initially working under the guidance of Dr Graham Webster, after sand and gravel quarrying activities at Shawell Quarry unearthed a cemetery, complete with Roman grave goods. The quarry was on the border between Warwickshire and Leicestershire, which is roughly aligned with the A5 road in that area (Figure 3, Areas 1 and 6). The «High level ground» (Figure 3) contained the remains of a substantial defensive ditch, dating to the mid or
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