Shropshire: Art, Architecture and Archaeology from Roman Wroxeter to the Sixteenth Century considers the shift in the regional administrative centre from Wroxeter to Shrewsbury, the powerful evidence for investment in the material fabric of the middle Welsh March, particularly between the late 11th and 13th centuries, and Shropshire’s great monastic hinterland. Chapters cover Shropshire from many different angles, encompassing wide-ranging case studies that address architecture, figure-sculpture, and stained glass, as well as questions of liturgy, religion, and castle life. Topics include reappraisals of the 19th- and 20th-century excavations of Wroxeter, Laurence of Ludlow’s involvement in the building of Stokesay Castle, and Shrewsbury Castle, as well as a study of anchorite cells attached to Shropshire parish churches. There is new evidence for the deployment of water features and gardens around late medieval castles; evaluations of Haughmond Abbey, Wenlock Priory, and the abbot’s lodging at Buildwas; and a reconstruction of the late medieval glazing scheme at St Bartholomew’s, Tong. Also investigated are the recently recovered 15th-century seal matrix of Shrewsbury, Romanesque sculptural workshop practice, and the enigmatic alabaster panels at St Mary’s, Shrewsbury. Shropshire: Art, Architecture and Archaeology from Roman Wroxeter to the Sixteenth Century updates and enlarges our knowledge of the middle Welsh March and will be of interest to all medieval archaeologists and historians.
