The site at Leicester Abbey lies on the northern outskirts of Roman Ratae Corieltauvorum, the civitas capital of the Corieltauvi, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the late 4th century. While the abbey grounds themselves sit beyond the walled town, this northern suburb along the Fosse Way corridor likely accommodated roadside activity associated with the urban centre, potentially including a mansio serving official travellers on the cursus publicus, though the principal mansio of Ratae is generally thought to have lain within or close to the town itself.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of greater Ratae, the area participated in the administrative and economic functions of one of the more important midland civitas capitals, situated at a major node where the Fosse Way met routes to Lindum (Lincoln) and Verulamium. Any wayside station here would have supported the movement of officials and goods along this principal diagonal artery of Roman Britain.
Roman material — pottery, coins, tile, and traces of stone structures — has been recovered intermittently from the abbey precincts and Cavendish House gardens since the 19th century, indicating extramural Roman occupation, but no excavated building plan has been securely identified as a mansio. Honestly, the specific identification of this location as a mansio/station is not well-substantiated in the published archaeological literature, and the principal Roman evidence for Leicester remains concentrated within the walled area to the south (Jewry
The site at Leicester Abbey lies on the northern outskirts of Roman Ratae Corieltauvorum, the civitas capital of the Corieltauvi, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the late 4th century. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a mansio / station site from the Roman period in Britain.
Leicester abbey and 17th century mansion and ornamental gardens is classified as a Roman mansio / station — 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 Jewry Wall (1.4 km), Ratae (1.4 km), The 'Roman' bridge, Belgrave (1.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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