Wroxeter - Viroconium Cornoviorum

Our last -chester trip was to Rochester, which is at one end of Watling Street, the ancient Roman road running across the British mainland, from the coast at Kent to the Severn.  This time we found ourselves at the other end of Watling Street in Wroxeter, Shropshire.  Although these days it's barely even a village, in Roman times Wroxeter was the fourth largest settlement on the island of Britain, with an estimated 15,000 people and a Roman civitas that included public baths and a forum. 



Wroxeter Roman City, English Heritage site

 Last year Channel 4 made a programme called Rome wasn't built in a day which documents the reconstruction of a Roman-style villa at the site of Wroxeter Roman city.  I only managed to catch one episode before we did our Wroxeter walk but, now that I've been there, I'm definitely interested in watching the whole series!  This new feature of the English-heritage owned site was opened to the public last month but, unfortunately myself and BAM arrived in Wroxeter too late and left the next morning too early, to have to time to explore the site properly.

The West Midlands Cornovii



Roman villa at Wroxeter

 We like to stay in the -chester we visit, when that's possible and, although I'm sure there were lots of interesting accommodation options in nearby Shrewsbury, there is a lovely hotel in Wroxeter, which is reasonably priced and has a wonderful setting.  Trundling up from London on the train (via Birmingham, a sign of the times, there is no longer a direct rail service between Shropshire and the capital) and then catching a bus from Shrewsbury, followed by a short walk to the hotel, we went from one extreme to the other.  The hustle-bustle of one of the world's largest cities, to the tranquility of the Shropshire countryside. 

Our room had a view of the Wrekin, in the distance, Shropshire's iconic hill.  Indeed, the name Wroxeter, or as the Romans called it Vironconium Cornoviorum, was borrowed from the nearby hill fort on the Wrekin.  The origins of the name are obscure, but it might have something to do with the Celtic/Welsh word for werewolf! 



Snowdrops

 Before the Romans arrived on the scene, Shropshire was the territory of a Celtic tribe which the Romans called the Cornovii.  We don't know much about them, they produced no coins or other artifacts that might have preserved their culture, so the Roman records on the history of this tribe are our main source of information, apart from the hill forts and other archaeological evidence that they left behind.  There is a theory that the Cornovii of Shropshire and the West Midlands migrated south to Cornwall and gave that part of Britain its name, but this theory is controversial and the official story is still that Cornwall was so named because it resembled a 'horn'.  Another theory is that the Celts worshipped 'horned gods' (this may later have become our image of the devil) and there is a small village, called Abbot's Bromley, in neighbouring Staffordshire, where villagers still enact a 'horn dance', which has been around since time immemorial. 

Wroxeter to Atcham (1.8 miles)



The road out of Wroxeter

 The weather in Shropshire was rather strange yesterday.  A mist hung over the Severn valley for the whole day, that gave us the impression we were walking through someone else's dreams!  The path that we followed is part of the Severn Way, a 220-mile walking path that starts in mid-Wales and finishes somewhere near Bristol.  It's hard to imagine how much of a obstacle the Severn was, in Roman times - their great trans-Britannia road seems to have literally ground to a halt at Wroxeter, as they settled down and tried to figure out how to cross the river!  It practically separates England from Wales and, being the longest river in Britain, I think it has an iconic status, that is barely recognised, in our era of motorways and high-speed rail.  It was certainly the main focus of our walk yesterday and I think myself and BAM are confident that we now know this part of the Severn pretty well!



Old bridge at Atcham

 The first couple of miles from Wroxeter to Atcham were easy road-walking.  Atcham was a pretty place, with a wonderful old bridge, which has been superseded by a newer road bridge.  Atcham was the birth-place of Ordericus Vitalis (or as BAM so cruelly renamed him, Odorous Vitalis), the English chronicler who wrote one of the most famous histories of the Middle Ages, the Historia Ecclesiastica.  It also has a fine country house called Attingham Park, which is a National Trust property.

Something of a pattern on these walks is the mysterious links between places in Britain that are physically distant from each other.  Atcham/Attingham is named after Saint Eata, a 7th century bishop from Hexham in the North East of England.  It reminds me of the Hoo St Werburgh, the village in Kent, which is named after the patron saint of Chester.  It makes you wonder to what extent communication was possible between places that were really distant.  We tend to assume that there was little communication, because of the distances involved, but this obviously wasn't the case.  Nevertheless the connections are still somewhat obscure!



The Shropshire Loggerheads

 An interesting thing about Shropshire is that the county symbol is three loggerheads (which is the heraldic term for leopard's heads).  Again, it hints at something much more exotic and makes me more curious than ever, with conspiracy theories about werewolves running riot in my imagination!  The loggerheads in the picture are from a sign in Atcham.  BAM was terribly amused by the county motto, Floreat Salopia - Salopia being the Latin name for Shrewsbury.  As I also speak French, I can understand how that might sound a bit funny to a French-speaker!  I must admit, we did have a guilty giggle, as we walked past the Salopian Leisure Centre. 

Atcham to the A5 (approx 2 miles)



The Severn near Emstrey

 Shortly after leaving Atcham, we also left the road, continuing our walk much closer to the river, along one of the many bends that is characteristic of the Severn in this part of Shropshire.  The walking was pretty pleasant and, before long, we found ourselves at the modern bridge which carries the A5 over the river.  The A5 is an incredibly important road and was one of the earliest road building projects of modern Britain.  Although it more or less follows the route of the old Roman Watling Street, it's been altered and changed so many times that the original road no longer exists.  The bridge we were looking at was a pretty modern one and replaced an earlier version of the A5, which was the road we'd just walked on from Atcham. 



The A5 in the distance

 In 1800, an Act of Union was passed which united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, effectively creating a new country, which we still call the UK!  Seeing the importance of establishing effective communication between London and Dublin, the government of the UK invested heavily in creating a unified road system, the A5, which would make travel between the British and Irish capitals relatively high-speed (by early 19th century terms!).  I guess, as an Irishman, the A5 is pretty important, as a symbol of Britain's relationship with Ireland and it's another iconic feature of the landscape, that I had no awareness of, before I started planning for this trip!  It runs all the way from the Marble Arch in London, to Holyhead, where you can connect by ferry to the Irish capital.  It used to run right through the centre of Shrewsbury, but now bypasses the town and the bridge in the picture is the point where it first crosses the Severn. 



The A5 near Shrewsbury

 Overall responsibility for building the A5 lay with the popular engineer, Thomas Telford.  I wish I'd had more time to read up on Thomas Telford, as he sounds like a fascinating person.  He was a self-made man, born into poverty and self-taught, he became one of the most prolific civil engineers of the late-18th and early-19th centuries.  He built numerous bridges in Shropshire and around Britain, he was famous for his canals and was even invited to Gothenburg by the King of Sweden to build the canal there.  The modern-day town of Telford, which has overtaken Shrewsbury in terms of population, was named after this Scottish engineer.  Another interesting thing I learned about Telford is that his mother's name was Janet Jackson! 

The A5 to Monksmoor (approx 2 miles)



A lonely tree on Monkmoor

 This part of the walk was incredibly quiet - passing under the railway bridge and another A-road, the A49 which was a 1920's project, built for motor-cars, rather than horse and carriage, linking Lancashire with South Wales.  The river meandered peacefully and we walked along, mostly in silence, lost in our own thoughts.  The river bends again, just opposite Uffington and the houses of Monkmoor are set back from the river.  Although you're incredibly close to Shrewsbury at this point, it feels as though you're in the middle of the countryside!  I was quite taken by this image of the tree on Monkmoor, which seemed incredibly forlorn by itself in the middle of the field!  I guess the area was called Monkmoor, as it's at the back end of Shrewsbury Abbey.  Shrewsbury is prone to flooding at several points along the Severn, some of the worst floods being at the other end of Shrewsbury, in Frankwell, which was flooded three times in 2000!  It would explain why some parts of Shrewsbury aren't particularly built up.

Monkmoor to the English Bridge (approx 3.5 miles)



The promenade at Ditherington

 We found Shrewsbury really interesting.  It's not a place you hear about much, in the news (which can only be a good thing!).  Although you have the feeling that you are in any typically English market town, you can sense the presence of Wales and, as I understand it, much of Shrewsbury's economy these days is focused on the many Welsh shoppers and visitors the town receives.  I was keeping an eye on the local news before going to Shropshire and it was interesting to see the reports of protests and campaigns by local people who are angry at the cuts to Shropshire Council's budget.  Whilst I'm used to protests, living in London, it surprised me to see this level of anti-cuts feeling in a part of England that traditionally votes Conservative. 



The walk into Shrewsbury

 The local Conservative MP, Daniel Kawczynski is 6 foot 8 1/2 inches tall (that's 2 metres four) and is believed to be one of the tallest MP's ever to sit in the UK parliament!  He belongs to a more right-wing grouping of conservatives, called 'the cornerstone group' and he is of Polish descent. 

This part of the walk took us through the suburb of Ditherington, where we crossed the road bridge and then walked on a really nice promenade all the way down to the centre of Shrewsbury.  We passed under another railway bridge, just below Shrewsbury Castle, then walked along the Gay Meadow to Shrewsbury's English bridge. 

The English bridge to the Welsh bridge (1.2 miles)



The Shrewsbury School

 We'd spent a couple of hours wandering around Shrewsbury when we arrived on Friday, but we hadn't done the riverside walk before yesterday and this was definitely the highlight of the day.  It says a lot that Shrewsbury's two main bridges are called the English Bridge and the Welsh Bridge and Shrewsbury itself acts as a kind of gateway between England and Wales.  Saturday seems to be a really popular time for the town's rowing clubs and, as we walked along Victoria Avenue, we saw lots of rowing teams zipping up and down the river, being shouted on by their coxswains and chased along the bank by friends videoing their performance. 



Statue of Hercules

 Some of the teams were from The Shrewsbury School, a well-known educational establishment founded in the 16th century.  Former pupils, known as Old Salopians (I can hear BAM giggling on the other side of London!), include Charles Darwin, Paul Foot, Michael Palin and Christopher Booker (the founder of Private Eye). 

Despite the bad weather, it seemed as though the whole of Shrewsbury had come out to jog, cycle or walk through Shrewsbury's main park, the Quarry.  The photo is a view of the Quarry with the statue of Hercules in the foreground.  Apparently, the statue used to face the other way, with its back to the park, as its front was deemed too shocking for the local womenfolk!  I'm also showing you the back, so as not to offend my more sensitive readers :-)

The Welsh Bridge to Shelton and back again (approx 4 miles)



Street Sign at the Welsh Bridge

 At the Welsh Bridge, the Severn Way joins up with part of a local walk called 'the Darwin town trail', which has interesting plaques telling different aspects of local history and highlights Shrewsbury's Darwin connection.  This side of the river is known as Frankwell and grew up as a separate place to Shrewsbury.  It's where Darwin lived, as a boy and some of the fields we were walking through, especially the Doctor's Field, are places that he would have known well as a child and are where he developed his interest in the natural world.  We followed the river for a couple of miles to the suburb of Shelton, then turned back onto the main road and made our way back to Frankwell and across the Welsh Bridge for some well-earned victuals in a very popular restaurant called The Armoury. 

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