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.
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.
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