Bannaventa or Benaventa was a Romano-British fortified town which was situated on the Roman road later called Watling Street. In the modern day, the location is on the A5 road. Bannaventa straddles the boundaries of Norton and Whilton, Northamptonshire, England.
The road on which Bannaventa lies is thought to be the first built by the Romans in Britain. It begins in Portus Ritupis (Richborough in Kent) and runs in successive north westerly directions – via many Roman towns.
Bannaventa was a small fortified town on this road 10.9 miles (17.5 km) north-northwest of the Roman town of Lactodorum (now Towcester). The other way, by 17.3 miles (27.8 km), was the Roman settlement of Venonis (Wigston Parva), a crossroads town – of this street which there for several miles marks the Leicestershire-Warwickshire boundary – with Fosse Way (road from Lincoln to Britain's south west).
Bannaventa is derived from Brittonic *bannā "peak, hill" (as in Modern Welsh ban, "top, tip, point, summit, crest, peak, beacon, height, pinnacle, turret, hill, mountain, bare hill") and *wentā, of obscure origin, but perhaps "place of sacrifice" or simply "place, field" (as in Welsh cadwent "battlefield")
Bannaventa was a staging post for Romano-Celtic travellers and would have operated along the lines of the coaching towns of a later period along Watling Street. The town would have been a vital part of the road infrastructure of Roman Britain. The fortified town would provide a safe, warm resting place where provisions for the journey could be bought and horses and other livestock could be safely stabled overnight. A possible location for a Mansio (an Imperial hostel) or mutatio (a more basic staging post) was identified in a 2016 survey. The town would also provide some protection for the wider local allies in times of danger, and it would appear that in the late third century a smaller, more defensible area was enclosed within the south-west section of the town. Close to the town are other Roman sites, connected in time. These include the remains of a villa on the summit of nearby Borough Hill, another smaller settlement between Thrupp Lodge and Thrupp Grounds and two other small homesteads, and a more western Roman villa.
A number of rubbish pits dating from the 1st and 2nd century
In 1900, Roman coins of Victorinus and Samian ware, remnants of buildings including wall plaster, rotten wood, roof slates, and a cobbled floor.
In 1957 a Large Nene Valley beaker, large painted pot, part of a glass bowl. Fragments of a black Samian pot plus many other artifacts.
In 1970 the site was photographed from the air. This revealed the position of the street which was more true north-south as it bisected the town, and the outline of the town mostly to the west of the A5. The settlement was enclosed by an imperfect square (distended to the south-east) with broad rounded corners, bounded by a series of three sets of banks and ditches. The enclosed town measured 13.5 acres (5.5 ha). In the enclosure lies evidence of the wooden buildings which made up most of the town.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Bannaventa or Benaventa was a Romano-British fortified town which was situated on the Roman road later called Watling Street. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Bannaventa is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Borough Hill: two Iron Age hillforts and a defended enclosure, two Bronze Age barrows, a Roman building complex and barrow cemetery (4 km), Daventry (5.5 km), Harpole Roman villa (6.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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