ROMANO-BRITISH WARWICKSHIRE 



to us Manduessedum and Bannaventa which agree satisfactorily with 

 the actual mileage. It is therefore natural that there should have been 

 general agreement among archaeologists since Camden to identify Venonae 

 and High Cross. 1 



(c) MANCETTER 



Eleven miles north-west of High Cross along Watling Street, and 

 east of the town of Atherstone, is the parish of Mancetter, and in it a 

 Roman site. Its name and the mileage of the Itinerary justify us in 

 identifying it with the Manduessedum of that document. 2 The now 

 visible remains consist of a rectangular earthwork, lying half on each side 

 of Watling Street, and therefore half in Leicestershire and half in War- 

 wickshire (fig. 3). The northern or Leicestershire part is or was called 



FIG. 3. MANDUESSEDUM AND SURROUNDINGS. 

 (From the 6-inch Ordnance Survey, Scale I : 10560) 



Oufort Bank, the other Castle Bank. The total dimensions of the two 

 are about 450 by 600 feet, and the total interior area is about 6 acres. 

 It has been generally assumed that this earthwork is of Roman origin, 

 and the assumption seems reasonable, though definite proof is wanting. 

 It is not clear however whether it represents the whole or a part only 

 of the Roman site. Stukeley, who visited it in 1725, heard of 'great 

 stones and mortarwork exceeding strong, much Roman brick, iron, and 



1 Venonae, being on the edge of several parishes, has been variously described as being in Clay- 

 brook, or in Wigston, etc. Occasionally this variety of description has been mistaken for variety of 

 identification, and hence it has been sometimes wrongly asserted that the site is uncertain or disputed. 



* Itin. Ant. 470, 3. It is a Celtic name (D'Arbois de Jubainville, Nomi gaulois chez Char, pp. 

 127, 131) : the last t is to be pronounced short. 



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