Five miles from Shrewsbury, capital of the county of Shropshire in the West Midlands, is the site of one of Britain’s largest and best-preserved Roman cities.
Founded in AD 58 as a military base, Wroxeter (known in Roman times as Viroconium) thrived for five centuries and expanded to be the fourth largest city in Roman Britain by area. It covered about 78 hectares (180 acres), almost the same size as Pompeii, and at its peak was home to around 15,000 people.
The site which visitors can stroll around today is surrounded by tranquil countryside, with the Shropshire hills dominating the horizon. It is owned by English Heritage, an organisation which maintains and champions historic sites and places.
English Heritage notes that Wroxeter’s relatively remote location spared the Roman town’s archaeological remains from being disturbed by later occupation.
Legionnaires and Citizens
There had been prehistoric settlements in the Severn River valley near Wroxeter long before the Roman period. Surveys of the area have revealed a cluster of probable Bronze Age burial mounds dating to around 1500 BC. Later, there is also evidence of at least two ditched enclosures from the Iron Age, thought to have started around 600 BC in this region.
Following the arrival of the Roman Army in the Wroxeter area around 47 AD, four years after the invasion of Britain, a garrison of about 500 soldiers established a legionary fortress in AD 58 on the east bank of the Severn, near to where a ford crossed the river. Soon after, a small civilian settlement developed alongside the fortress.
“On the other side of the river lay the major routes into Central and North Wales, where there were valuable mineral resources of silver, lead and iron. Tribes hostile to Rome inhabited those regions, so Viroconium was important strategically as a barrier to invasion from unconquered Wales,” English Heritage explained.
After the Roman legions left in AD 90, the street grid and some of the buildings of the fortress were used to form the nucleus of the first town that replaced the fortress, said Dr Roger White, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham, who worked as an excavator at Wroxeter from 1976 to 1990.
“A visit from Emperor Hadrian in AD 122 is thought to have increased its size substantially, providing it with one of the country’s largest civic centres, including an impressive forum, market place, temple and bath house,” the BBC History magazine (November 2011) noted.
The settlement was eventually abandoned, probably in the 6th or 7th century, long after the conventional end of Roman Britain. However, some people continued to live in a small village which grew up at the southern end of the former town centre. The Anglo-Saxon church of Saint Andrew in Wroxeter Village was built using huge stones looted from the Roman city.
Modern Excavations
In February 1859, English Heritage recalls, workmen began excavating the baths complex. “By April, much of the present site was exposed and thronged with fascinated visitors, including Charles Dickens. Donated by the landowner for public viewing, Wroxeter thus became one of the first archaeological visitor attractions in Britain.”
But it was only 100 years later that more extensive excavations revealed the grand scale on which Wroxeter was rebuilt in the 5th century AD.
The BBC History website says the city appears to have had a long life after the end of Roman Britain. “This is evidenced by the fact that timber and wattle and daub buildings were built, and then rebuilt perhaps more than once, across a large part of the city centre.”
Even after the digs of the 1960s and 70s, much of the original city remains below ground. Today the most striking features on the site are the 2nd century municipal baths, and the great wall dividing them from the exercise hall in the heart of the city.
A TV series screened on the UK broadcaster Channel 4 in 2010, called “Rome Wasn't Built in a Day”, documented the efforts of contemporary builders to reconstruct a Roman villa urbana, or high-status town house, at Wroxeter using traditional tools and techniques. The replica villa was handed over to English Heritage in February 2011 and is open to the public.
Facilities for Visitors
Admission to Wroxeter Roman City includes access to the Museum and the replica Roman Villa nearby. Audio tours are available for hire. Other facilities include:
- Wheelchair access to shop and site
- Visitor shop
- Snack bar and picnic area.
- Address: Wroxeter Roman Town, Wroxeter, Shropshire SY5 6PH.
- Directions: At Wroxeter, 5 miles east of Shrewsbury, 1 mile south of A5.
- Tel: 01743 761330
Sources:
Peter Feuilherade - I took voluntary early retirement from the BBC in 2010, and I'm now a freelance writer. I had worked there as a reporter and news editor ...
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