Life and events in Kingswear from the Romans to the Norman Conquest.

The Dartmouth Chronicle of 6th August 1886 reports an INTERESTING FIND – The Gardener at the Beacon, Kingswear, when digging last week, discovered a most interesting coin of the second century. It is inscribed “V. T. Commodius,” who by reference to Gibbon, reigned in A. D. 180. On the reverse a spread Eagle. This establishes the fact that the Romans must have had some connection with Kingswear about the above named date.

Totnes is at the navigable head of the river Dart and is its lowest fordable point. The town dates
back 1300 years to its establishment as a fortified Saxon ‘burh’, one of several at strategic points in
the Kingdom of Wessex to protect against Viking raids. There is little doubt, however, that merchants were making their way up the river in much earlier times to trade for tin from Dartmoor. At this time tin would have been gathered from alluvial deposits. It is conjectured that the Phoenicians came to this area, and specifically Totnes to trade for tin up to 300 years BCE.

The site of a Romano-British farmstead is clealy visible in a field near Stoke Gabrial and is separately report here. It has not been excavated.

Roman presence in this area can be inferred from Roman finds in neighbouring areas, notably:

1. The site of a Roman camp at Hillhead,
2. A site of Roman occupation at Stoke Gabriel,
3. Several sites of Roman occupation at Totnes

(Source: archiuk.com – Archaeological Sites in River Dart, Devon)

Kingswear is not mentioned in the Doomsday Book but there is reason to believe that Kingston, which is on the plateau above Kingswear, dates from Saxon times with some evidence of Stone Age and Roman occupation. 

Title and Author	Time Period	Link
Dartmouth Chronicle	circa AD 180	Above