Tripontium is featured in the Antonine Itineraries, a document created in the third century AD which recorded the journeys taken by the Roman Emperors, the places they stopped and those they passed through. Three of the itineraries pass through Tripontium (II VI and VIII) but only Iter VI has Tripontium as a stopping place.
The location of Tripontium has been a subject of speculation for centuries. An etching by William Stukeley dated 1722 of the Dow Bridge is clearly marked as the location of Tripontium. The Dow Bridge is near to the village of Catthorpe in south-east Leicestershire, where the River Avon crosses the Roman road which was called Watling Street by the Saxons and is now the A5. The first century version of this bridge, is almost certainly one of the three bridges that gave rise to the name of the town, but the centre of the town was located about one mile north of the bridge.
This is quite a close guess compared to those of many other historians. However the first person on record to correctly identify the location of Tripontium was Matthew Bloxam, the Rugby historian and antiquarian, who proposed that the settlement was at Caves Inn, which is on the A5 about eight miles south of High Cross (Venonae) and about ten miles north of Bannaventa.
Rugby Archaeological Society was founded and began excavating Tripontium in the early 1960s when the area was being quarried for sand and gravel. The fieldwork conducted by the Society in that area continued until 2008. Four reports have been published by RAS about the excavations and research. Copies of the Tripontium, Fourth and Final Report are available from the RAS secretary, either as a PDF or printed copy (120 pages).