Past SWAG Visits
Wroxeter Roman City 25th September 2005 map
 Site of the basilica Photo ©Bob Ruffle 2005 |
SWAG visited Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire on 25th September 2005. A full account of the day's visit is provided by Richard Edwards in Issue 95 (December 2005) of SWAG's newsletter. Wroxeter Roman City is an English Heritage site. Many thanks to Bob Ruffle and Richard Axe for the photographs on this page. |
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During Roman occupation, Wroxeter became an important garrison town, developing into the fourth largest Roman city in Britain. The full extent of the city has become apparent only in recent times from the study of aerial photographs and geophysical surveys. The civilian settlement which replaced the military garrison was the civitas capital for the Cornovii tribal area, and it has been estimated that this extended to an area comparable with that of Pompeii. |
 The Old Work, one of the largest free-standing pieces of Roman masonry remaining in Britain Photo ©Bob Ruffle 2005 |
 Foundations of the city baths Photo ©Richard Axe 2005 |
Today's visible remains are limited mainly to an imposing wall known as the 'The Old Work' (above), the foundations of the city baths (left) and the market hall (below left), which were originally excavated in the mid-nineteenth century |
 View from the south-west, with the market hall in the foreground. The Wrekin is visible on the horizon Photo ©Richard Axe 2005 |
 The village church - St Andrews. The pillars supporting the gates are understood to have come from the Roman city, as has much of the masonry for the church itself (see weblink in the list below). Photo ©Richard Axe 2005 |
Information on Wroxeter available on the Internet:
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selection of past visits Guarlford | Wool in the Cotswolds King Arthur's Cave | Clee Hill | Upton-upon-Severn Kilpeck and Abbey Dore | Knighton | Wroxeter Roman City Blackfriars Priory, Gloucester | Kempsey | St Mary's Church Kempley |
www.swag-online.org.uk
