Site of Roman house revealed in Shropshire hot spell

An RAF helicopter pilot spotted the crop-markings flying over Wroxeter Roman city, near Shrewsbury, and thought he had discovered a Roman fort.

Dr Roger White, an expert in Roman archaeology from the University of Birmingham, went up in the air to photograph the site himself.

His pictures show a town house, last seen in 2003, but he says this year's images are the sharpest since those taken during the heatwave of 1976.

The building lies within the boundaries of what was the Roman city of Viroconium, of which only about five per cent has ever been excavated. Its exact location is being kept secret for fear that amateurs with metal detectors may strip the site.

"It really is pretty spectacular this year," said Dr White, author of The Wroxeter Atlas, an A-Z guide of the area's ancient buildings.

"You couldn't help but notice it if you are in the air. You can even see divisions between the rooms and the under floor heating system.

"This has been the best summer for cropmark photography for at least a decade. Generally you can't see anything at all. We know this is one of the buildings in one of the city blocks, probably a town house made of stone, so likely occupied by someone prosperous, of middle class. It's the first time we've been able to measure it on the ground."

The dimensions, of 24.5 metres long and 16 metres wide, mirror exactly the reconstructed Roman town house on the site of the old forum, which was built using traditional Roman methods in a joint project with Channel 4.

Dr White said he was also treated to a clear view of the original Roman fortress at Wroxeter, which lies two metres down, underneath the baths of the ancient city and extends to about 40 acres in all – sufficient to accommodate an entire legion of 5,000 men, believed to have come from France and Italy. The fortress was built in 47-50 AD when the Romans stormed and set fire to a nearby hill fort on The Wrekin.

It was abandoned by the mid-90s, giving way to a thriving civilian city, based on the same grid layout of 48 town blocks. Visitors to the English Heritage-run site today can still marvel at the towering, red brick wall of the second century municipal baths and exercise hall, in the heart of the city.

Dr White said there were no plan to excavate the town house or any more of the city which, at 180 acres, is the same size as Pompeii. The site was first excavated in February 1859 and within two months much of what we see today had been uncovered. The landowner donated the area for public viewing and soon drew in fascinated visitors, among them Charles Dickens.

"It is a fine balance," Dr White added. "Really very little excavation has been done on it at all. What we have at Wroxeter is something that is incredibly rare and fragile. The trouble is that you inevitably destroy some of what you are digging. The only areas that are safe to dig are those that have been excavated before."

That includes land around the forum and land closer to the village of Wroxeter that was excavated between 1912 and 1914, and then covered over, by the then inspector of ancient monuments.

"As the land is owned by the state, there is no immediate threat from development," Dr White added. "And in a sense we have already seen what's there, through geophysics and aerial photography. Excavations could give us more precise dates but we are very unlikely to be able to link buildings to a known person."

So-called cropmarking, which allows such archaeological features to come to light, is particularly noticeable this summer thanks to the long spell of hot weather. Hidden remains become visible when crops growing over buried features develop at a different rate from those growing next to them. Stressed by drought, the crops in thin soil ripen and die more quickly, leading to greater definition. The town house at Wroxeter was also visible in 2003 and 1994/5, but only "obliquely". The first ever aerial photographs of the Roman city were taken as early as 1928.

Dr Pete Wilson, a Roman specialist at English Heritage said: "It's wonderful that we have been able to record the exact dimensions of the Roman town house near Wroxeter Roman villa. The town house only becomes visible every now and then when we have hot weather, but it's a key element of the site and the new information will help us understand further its significance. We look forward to examining these most recent findings further."