What we did on our holidays - II

20th April - The Wrekin: We split up and early one morning Ginny and I drove out towards Telford. First, to look at Wroxeter -'Viroconium', which was the fourth largest city in Roman Britain. It began as a legionary fortress and later developed into a thriving civilian city. Though much still remains below ground, today the most impressive features are the 2nd century municipal baths, and the remains of the huge wall dividing them from the exercise hall in the heart of the city. There is a site museum that reveals how Wroxeter worked in its heyday, and the health and beauty practices of its 5,000 citizens. In February 1859 workmen began excavating the baths complex, and by April much of the present site was exposed and thronged with fascinated visitors, including Charles Dickens.

Donated by the landowner for public viewing, Wroxeter thus became one of the first archaeological visitor attractions in Britain. Thanks to a project between English Heritage and Channel 4, a Roman town house

has been erected at Wroxeter and is now open to the public. A TV series followed a team of modern builders as they built the town house using traditional Roman methods.

Then went to look at Ironbridge. The area around Ironbridge is described as the "Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution" due to the legend that Abraham Darby perfected the technique of smelting iron with coke, in Coalbrookdale, allowing much cheaper production of iron. However, the industrial revolution did not "begin" in one place, but in many. The growth of railways, spinning machines, weaving and other industrial inventions and activities were going on all over the country. Smelting iron by Darby was but one small part of this generalised revolution and was soon superseded by the great iron-smelting areas.


The grandson of the first Abraham Darby, Abraham Darby III, built the famous bridge - originally designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard - to link the two areas. Construction began in 1779 and the bridge opened on New Year's Day 1781.

Next the climb up The Wrekin, but first Ginny and I circumnavigated it by car.

The hill is formed of Pre-Cambrian rocks, approximately 680 million years old. The rocks are igneous - layers of ancient lava flows laid down in a volcanic island arc, similar to modern Japan. The earliest mention of the Wrekin occurs in a charter of 855, as entered in a late eleventh century Worcester chartulary, spelled Wreocensetun. Its modern form is believed to have come into modern English by way of Mercian, and that is likely to have been taken from the early Celtic word Wrikon perhaps etymologically related to the Latin name Viroconium Cornoviorum - the Cornovii were the British tribe inhabiting the area. There is an Iron Age hill fort on the summit almost 8 hectares in size, to which the name Uriconio originally referred. It is thought the fort was built by the Cornovii tribe and was once their capital.


The legend of the creation of The Wrekin is basically as follows...A giant called Gwendol Wrekin ap Shenkin ap Mynyddmawr with a grudge against the town of Shrewsbury decided to flood the town and kill all its inhabitants.

So he collected a giant-sized spadeful of earth and set off towards the town. When in the vicinity of Wellington he met a cobbler returning from Shrewsbury market with a large sackful of shoes for repair. The giant asked him for directions, adding that he was going to dump his spadeful of earth in the River Severn and flood the town. "It's a very long way to Shrewsbury," replied the quick-thinking shoemaker. "Look at all these shoes I've worn out walking back from there!" The giant immediately decided to abandon his enterprise and dumped the earth on the ground beside him, where it became the Wrekin. The giant also scraped the mud off his boots, which became the smaller hill Ercall Hill nearby. Ironically Shrewsbury is subjected to flooding from the River Severn on frequent occasions naturally.


21st April - Bircher Common - a long settled part of Herefordshire, inhabited for several thousand years. Archaeologists have found evidence of possibly prehistoric and Romano British settlements on the Common, as well as medieval and 18th century occupation. From the Common, we walked uphill for about 500 yards to the woodlands then a short walk took us into fields at then end of which we had lunch. I spotted a grand house across a valley when I explored some of the woodlands. We then entered past the notice board for the Forestry Commission into Croft Wood. There are very large beech trees as we went downhill - on a good track called Fishpools Valley (the pools were just below us and I took Ginny for a drink in two of them (Toffee, off the lead, plunged in most!). In the 18th and 19th century charcoal was produced here, to supply the forge at Bringewood, to the North. There was also carriageways in the woods for amusing the gentry!