Kingscote

Villa

Kingscote lies to the south of Gloucester and west of Cirencester. The parish of Kingscote is transected by a Roman road and a Roman settlement was excavated centred on a field named The Chessalls.  The Chessalls is a very large unwalled Romano-British settlement, associated with paved roads. The nature of the finds suggests an early Roman origin, possibly military.  The site covers 30 hectares and was occupied from the late 1st century AD through to its heyday in the 4th century. It may have been a small town or villa estate, with evidence of a series of strip buildings replaced in the 4th century by a house within a walled compound. The house seems to have been of high status, with mosaic floors, including a Venus mosaic now displayed in the nearby Corinium Museum, hypocausts and wall-plaster paintings.

The area is dotted with Roman remains. There is a Romano-British temple at Lydney Park (SO6102), and Villas at Rodmarton (ST9498), Woodchester (SO8303), Stancombe (ST7497), Frocester (SO7802), Bournes Green (SO9104) and Ifold (SO8510). In Addition, there are other substantial Roman buildings at Cherington (ST9096), Frocester (SO7703), Whitminster (SO7706), Stockend (SO8409) and Duntisbourne Abbots (SO9808).

In addition to these structural remains, a number of inscribed Roman tombstones have been turned up along the line of the main Roman road running north-south between Glevum (Gloucester, Gloucestershire) and Aquae Sulis (Bath, Avon), this road was known to the ancients as Antonine Iter XIV and is nowadays known by the designation Margary#?. Arranged roughly N-S and E-W in the RIB are four inscriptions: a gabled tombstone found in 1835 at Horsely Wood, ½-mile south-west of Horsely, now in the Stroud Museum (Rib 133; NGRef. ST8398); another gabled tombstone found in 1779 at Lasborough, 4 miles east of Wotton-under-Edge, now lost (Rib 134; NGRef. ST8293); a semicircular oolite relief found in 1795 in a barn of Calcot Farm, Newington Bagpath, near Tetbury, 4 miles WNW of Tetbury, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Rib 135; NGRef. ST8495); a third gabled tombstone found in 1846 within a small enclosure at Nesley Farm, Beverston, now in Corinium Museum (Rib 136; NGRef. ST8693).

RIB 133 - Funerary inscription for Julia Ingenuilla

To the spirits of the departed: Julia Ingenuilla lived 20 years, 5 months, 29 days.

D M
IVL INGENVIL
LA VX AN XX M V
D XXVIIII

No commentary.

RIB 134 - Funerary inscription for Sulicena

To the spirits of the departed Sulicena lived 14 (or more) years.

D M
SVLICENA
ANNOS
[.]XIIII VIXIT

No commentary.

RIB 135 - Dedication

Julius willingly fulfilled (his vow).

VL[...]VS S

No commentary. Addenda from RIB+add. (1995): Perhaps Tullus (Alföldy, Review) or Iullus (M.W.C.H.), but Iulius is quite often found independently as a name.

RIB 136 - Funerary inscription for Mettus

To the spirits of the departed (and) of Mettus, a Getan by tribe (who) lived 35 years. His heir set (this) up.

D M
METTI N
ATION
GETA
VIXIT
ANN XXXV
H P

Mommsen notes (EE vii 840) that the tribal area is given in the Greek form Geta, and not Dacus.

References for Kingscote

  • Historical Map and Guide – Roman Britain by the Ordnance Survey (3rd, 4th & 5th eds., 1956, 1994 & 2001);
  • The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965).

Map References for Kingscote

NGRef: ST8095 OSMap: LR162/163

Roman Roads near Kingscote

None identified

Sites near Kingscote