=Accommodation Obtainable.=--At Shrewsbury, "Raven Hotel," "Lion
Hotel," "George Hotel," etc.
The village of Wroxeter would not be of exceptional interest but for the
proximity of the site of the Roman city of Uriconium. It is owing to
this fact that the churchyard gate is composed of Roman pillars and
capitals. A summer-house in an adjoining garden is also made of Roman
materials, and the church contains a font in the form of an adapted
Roman capital, obtained with the rest from Uriconium. The church is
chiefly Norman, but probably a portion of the south wall of the chancel
is Saxon.
The little village occupies the southern extremity of the Roman city
whose circumference measures about 3 miles. One can trace the limits of
the place by the indications of the vallum and fosse.
There is no doubt that Uriconium was the Romanised capital of the
Cornavii, a British tribe, and it is equally well known that the town
became the centre of a network of great roads leading in different
directions. The walls enclosed an area more than twice the size of Roman
London, and one may easily gauge its importance and its princely style
of buildings from the traces of its forum and its amphitheatre, as well
as from its wide streets.
The huge destruction brought about when the city was overwhelmed by the
West Saxons left the place a mass of ruins, for there are evident signs
that the place was plundered and burned. During the Middle Ages there
must have been, however, more than mere rubbish heaps, and the many
walls then standing were probably destroyed by monks in order to furnish
cheap material for ecclesiastical buildings.
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