Discoveries of coins and other objects suggest that British villages existed here. The Watling Street running from Wroxeter to Caerleon passes near, communicating with Stoney Street, south of the Wye. The site has yielded considerable evidence of Roman occupation. Kenchester appears to have been a small town, in shape an irregular hexagon, with an area of some seventeen acres, surrounded by a stone wall pierced by four gates. The principal street, 15 ft. wide, ran from east to west; the houses contained tesselated pavements, hypocausts, leaden and tile drains; coins of various periods; fibulae (some of silver), glass, pottery, and the like, abound; while two inscriptions (one dated A.D. 283), lend a distinctive Roman colouring. Suburbs lay outside; and there was a villa a mile to the west at Bishopstone. The town, though small, had pretensions to comfort and civilization; it is the only important Romano-British site in Herefordshire. A legion was stationed here.
LANCASTER.—Castra ad alaunam—camp on the Lune, from Gaelic all—white. Therefore we have al—white; avn, or afon—water; which the Romans latinized into Alauna.
LEICESTER.
Before the Roman invasion, Leicester was inhabited by the Coritani. Under the Romans it formed part of the province of Flavia Cæsariensis. Watling Street,3 the Fosse Way and Via Devana converge on Leicester.
3 This does not actually pass through Leicester, but is twelve miles away at nearest.
The principal Roman stations near were:
| Ratae | —Leicester; |
| Verometum | —Borough Hill; |
| Manducosedum | —Mancetter; |
| Benones | —High Cross. |
In this region Roman remains have been found at: Leicester,4 Rothley, Wanlip, Hasby, Bottesfold, Hinckley, Sapcote, and Melton Mowbray. In 1771 a Roman milestone of the time of Hadrian (76-138) was discovered at a spot two miles from Leicester. Near Blaby, over the Soar, is a bridge locally known as the Roman Bridge.