The Ruins of the Roman City of Uriconium, at Wroxeter, near ShrewsburyWright, Thomas
History
The Ruins of the Roman City of Uriconium, at Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury
Wright, Thomas
Romans -- England -- Wroxeter; Wroxeter (England) -- Antiquities, Roman
walls remain, that is, about two feet above the floor of the court, there
is no trace of entrances to them, which must, therefore, have been rather
high in the wall, and they were entered perhaps by a ladder.
The back part of this court consists of a long narrow inclosure, which is
divided into compartments by four transverse walls proceeding from the
western wall about halfway across the inclosure, thus leaving a passage
along the eastern side. These compartments have much the appearance of
small shops or stalls for selling, and seem to confirm the notion that
this building may have been a market-place. The workmen, finding a
doorway in the wall of the back of this inclosure, at _n_ in the plan, a
trench was carried through the ground to the eastward. At about twelve
feet from the opening at _n_, they came upon a wall at _h_, running
parallel to the wall _o o_ of the court, and beyond this they found first
a narrow passage, and then a rise with a pavement of cement which
extended some four or five feet, and then suddenly sank to a floor of
large flag-stones, at a depth of upwards of four feet from the floor of
cement. This flagged floor, the position of which is marked by the
letter _q_ in the plan, was perhaps a reservoir of water; the bottom was
found covered with black earth filled with broken pottery and other
things, such as may easily have been supposed to have been thrown into a
pond. The water appears to have been only between two and three feet
deep, as the floor on the opposite side runs about level with the ledge
or step just mentioned, and is continued eastward until, at _r_, we come
upon the rather massive walls of a building, the nature of which cannot
be determined without further investigation. At a short distance within
this wall, at a depth of about three feet below the cement floor, we find
a floor at _s_, about ten feet wide by thirty long, formed of flat Roman
tiles, twelve inches by eighteen inches square. This floor has been
uncovered, and as there was an indentation in the middle which seemed to
indicate that it was hollow underneath, a hole was made there, but it led
to no discovery. This seems also to have been a tank of water, perhaps a
cold water bath. The cement floor was continued easterly until it was
terminated by a wall, _t_, which ran at right angles to the eastern end
of the Old Wall, and appears to be the eastern termination of the
buildings now in course of exploration. The earth and rubbish from the
excavations have been here thrown into a great mound, from the top of
which the visitor can enjoy a bird’s eye view of the excavations. A few
yards to the north, he will come to the important line of excavations
nearer to the Old Wall. A small chamber, about eight feet square, with a
herring-bone pavement in very good preservation, projects beyond the line
of this eastern wall at _u_ in our plan. To the west of this is a small
hypocaust _v_, the floor of which has been a little lower than that of
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