Wroxeter

See also: Wroxeter (disambiguation)

Wroxeter
The ruins of Viroconium's public baths at Wroxeter
Wroxeter  Wroxeter shown within Shropshire
OS grid reference	SJ5608
Civil parish	Wroxeter and Uppington
Unitary authority	Shropshire
Ceremonial county	Shropshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Shrewsbury
Postcode district	SY5
Dialling code	01743
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Shropshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
EU Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	Shrewsbury and Atcham
Website	Wroxeter & Uppington Parish Council
List of places: UK • England • Shropshire

Wroxeter ( /ˈrɒksɨtər/) is a village in Shropshire, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Wroxeter and Uppington and is located in the Severn Valley about 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east of Shrewsbury.

History

Wroxeter is on the site of the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum, which was the fourth largest civitas capital in Roman Britain. In Old Welsh it was called Caer Guricon and may have served as the early post-Roman capital of the Welsh kingdom of Powys. Mercian encroachment forced the Welsh to move to Mathrafal castle sometime before AD 717 after famine and plague. The main section of the Watling Street Roman road runs across England between Dubris (Roman Dover) and Wroxeter.

The new villa opened at the Roman city in 2011

Pengwern and Powys may have been divisions of the pre-Roman Cornovii tribal federation whose civitas or administrative centre was Viroconium Cornoviorum (now Wroxeter). The minor Magonsæte sub-kingdom also emerged in the area in the interlude between Powys and Mercian rule. Some substantial standing ruins from Viroconium are just outside the village, where there is also a small museum. The Roman city was rediscovered in 1859 when workmen began excavating the baths complex. A replica Roman villa was constructed in 2010 for a Channel 4 television program called Rome Wasn't Built in a Day and was opened to the public on 19 February 2011.

Parish church

At the centre of Wroxeter village is Saint Andrew's parish church, some of which is built from re-used Roman masonry. The oldest visible section of the church is the Anglo-Saxon part of the north wall which is built of Roman monumental stone blocks. The chancel and the lower part of the tower are Norman. The gatepiers to the churchyard are a pair of Roman columns and the font in the church was made by hollowing out the capital of a Roman column. Later additions to the church incorporate remains of an Anglo-Saxon preaching cross and carvings salvaged from nearby Haughmond Abbey following the Dissolution.

St. Andrew's was declared redundant in 1980 and is now managed by The Churches Conservation Trust. St. Andrew's parish is now united with that of St. Mary, Eaton Constantine.

Literary reference

A.E. Housman visited the site and was impressed enough to write of "when Uricon the city stood", the poem ending "Today the Roman and his trouble Are ashes under Uricon."

Further reading

• Aston, Michael; Bond, James (1976). The Landscape of Towns. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. pp. 45–48, 51–54. ISBN 0 460 04194 0. 

External links

• Photos of Wroxeter and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
• English Heritage: Information for teachers