251 
BRAVINIUM. 
The site of the Roman station intermediate between Magna and Uriconium 
has been much discussed by antiquaries. It is named by Antonine, Bravinium, 
or Bravonium, and by Ptolemy Brannogenium. In the twelfth section of the 
British Iter of Antonine its relative position is placed as at 24 miles from Magna, 
and 27 miles from Uriconium, and since it must have been situated on the Roman 
road, now called Watling street, between these towns; and since, moreover, the 
Roman mile was, within a fraction, one twentieth less than our present English 
mile, its position could scarcely have been more definitely fixed. The existence, 
however, of the strongly entrenched camp of Brandon within a couple of miles of 
the position assigned to Bravinium, and the seeming absence of any other fortified 
station near, appears to have attracted the attention of observers and to have 
checked a more exact search. Mr. Hartshorne, in his Salopia Antiqua, considered 
Brandon Camp as identical with Bravinium (S.A. p. 58). Mr. James Davies, of 
Hereford (Archeologia Cambrensis, Vol. v. N.S. p. 100) also thought so, but 
suggested further inquiries. Britton, Camden, Aubrey, and others seem also to 
have considered them identical. The situation of Brandon, however, does not 
correspond with the position Bravinium should occupy according to Antonine, 
whose distances are generally accurate ; and it is a faet that Roman remains have 
never been found at Brandon; neither ashes, fragments of tiles or pottery, nor 
even one single Roman coin; although the inner area has long been cultivated. 
These circumstances have puzzled thoughtful antiquaries, and made them look 
elsewhere for the true Roman station. Horsley placed Bravinium ‘‘at Ludlow 
or Rnsberry, between Wenlock and Church Stretton.” Williams, in his 
History of Radnorshire, fixes Bravinium at Blackwardine, two miles south 
of Leominster (which beyond doubt was a Roman station, though its Roman 
name has been lost). The German geographer Mannert placed Bravinium 
at Bromfield, and in a note on this by Mr. Thomas Wright in his History of 
Indlow, p. 3, he says, ‘‘I am strongly inclined to believe that the present race- 
course adjacent to Bromfield, which bears the name of ‘Oldfield,’ and around 
which there are several tumuli, was the site of a Roman settlement of some kind.” 
Mr. W. Thompson Watkins, Archeological Journal, Vol. xxxiv., 1877, states that 
the key to the solution of the site of this station (Bravinium) would appear to 
have been originally given by the Rev. J. Pointer, M.A., of Merton College, Ox- 
ford in his Britannia Romana, published at Oxford, 1724; when treating of the 
Roman camps in the various counties of England, he says, at p. 54, “‘ Hereford- 
shire: In Dindar parish near Hereford is a camp called Oyster Hill ; another at 
Lanterdin between this county and Shropshire; another at Ledbury.” Mr. 
Longueville Jones, in his map Britannia Secunda, has also happily assigned 
Leintwardine as the site of Bravinium. Mr. Thos. Wright states that “‘it was 
probably situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Ludlow, perhaps at or near 
Leintwardine”’ (p. 3), but he adds also (p. 6) ‘‘the last traces of Bravinium have 
long disappeared.” 
These remarks were written in 1852, and at this very time Mr. Hugh Thomas 
