Magnis (Kenchester, Herefordshire) was a small walled Romano-British town situated on the road between Glevum (Gloucester) and the legionary fortress at Isca (Caerleon), with a likely military origin in the later 1st century giving way to a civilian settlement that flourished from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD. It occupied roughly 9 hectares within an irregular hexagonal circuit of walls and served as a local market centre in the territory of the Dobunni, near the Welsh frontier.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Magnis functioned as a regional economic hub serving the rural villa landscape of the lower Wye valley, one of the more prosperous villa zones of western Britain in the later Roman period. Its defences — added in the later 2nd or 3rd century — and position on a key westward road give it modest administrative and strategic importance.
Antiquarian and 20th-century investigations (notably the 1912–13 excavations by Jack and Hayter) revealed stone buildings, hypocausts, painted wall plaster, mosaics, and abundant coinage and pottery, indicating a settlement of some pretension. Geophysical survey has since revealed a denser street grid and structures within the walls, though large parts of the interior remain unexcavated.
Magnis (Kenchester, Herefordshire) was a small walled Romano-British town situated on the road between Glevum (Gloucester) and the legionary fortress at Isca (Caerleon), with a likely military origin in the later 1st century giving way to a civilian settlement that flourished from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Magnis 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 New Weir (1 km), New Weir Roman site (1.1 km), Bishopstone (1.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Magnis