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roof-tiles, were turned up. There can, therefore, be no doubt that this was a 
Roman station, occupied for a considerable period.” He also adds: “I think we 
have sufficient data to say that it is the site of Bravinium,” and in this opinion 
Mr. Thompson Watkins ‘‘fully concurs.” 
Mr. Banks thinks that ‘‘ Brandon was probably the first station occupied by 
the Romans, and that the site of Leintwardine at the junction of the two rivers 
well supplied with fish, and commanding the two valleys from which the hostile 
Britons would emerge, was afterwards chosen as a better place for a permanent 
residence.” Whether Brandon may have been first occupied, or whether it may 
have been a summer camp afterwards chosen, the better to observe and oppose 
the movements of the Britons on Coxwall Knoll (the opposite hill), would equally 
explain the absence there of any Roman remains. Brandon is half a mile from the 
nearest point of the Roman Road, and has no other supply of water than such as 
wells or rain might yield, and there is no trace existing now of either well or 
reservoir for water, and it would therefore afford far less convenience as a station 
than the site of Leintwardine. It may also be observed that Brandon Camp would 
form a refuge from any sudden attacks on the south side of the river, when floods 
rendered the stream impassable. 
The existence of numerous tumuli in the immediate neighbourhood also indi- 
cates the surrounding locality as the scene of many a severe fight. At Walford, 
a short distance from Brandon, are two, and in one of these were discovered, Mr. 
Banks states, on February 8th, 1736, a yellow vase-like earthen vessel of Roman 
form with a beaded moulding around the swelling portion and at its base. It 
stood 18 inches high, the diameter at the mouth was six inches, at its widest part 
14 inches, and at the base 12 inches. It was broken by the country people in the 
hope of finding money in it, but they found instead a mixture of bones and earth, 
human teeth, with a part of a skull and jawbones. ‘‘ Roman coins,” Mr. Hugh 
Evans also states, “‘ have been found near Walford, and fragments of pottery in 
a field higher up the valley, where again the ground is blackened.” 
There can be very little doubt, therefore, that Roman Bravinium occupied 
the site of the present Leintwardine. It was burnt and destroyed. There were 
the burnt remains to prove it. The site, however, must have again begun to be 
occupied at an early period. In Saxon times the Hundred of Lenteurde extended 
into the three counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Radnorshire, and the 
Manor belonged to King Edward the Confessor. It is most probable that its 
favourable position, added perhaps to political expediency, and the existence of 
well-made roads, caused the superstitious feeling prevailing at that time against 
the occupation of Roman towns to be quickly overcome. All the other Roman 
Stations in Herefordshire—Magna, Ariconium, Cicutio, and Blackwardine—were 
deserted from the time they were destroyed, and have never been re-occupied. 
A blackened soil alone remains to indicate their site to a superficial eye. Nota 
single human habitation is to be found on any one of them. The scenes, formerly 
so busy with active Roman life, are entirely deserted, except by the labourers, 
who come to prepare the soil and sow, the seeds for the agricultural produce that 
annually covers the surface of the ground. 
