c. 4000 to c. 2,200 BC

Neolithic hand-axe

This polished stone Neolithic hand-axe was found at Wheathill Farm in 1971 by the tenant farmer. Around 20cm in length, this axe is our earliest evidence for human occupation at Attingham. It was likely used to clear trees from the area to make way for the first farmers.

We know it was produced in North Wales, at a large established Neolithic axe production site. These axes were traded across the country and other similar axes are known from Shropshire.

c. 800 BC to 43 AD

Iron Age

We know, from the Romans, that during the Iron Age the landscape here was occupied by people known as the Cornovii. Close to Attingham an Iron Age hillfort was built on the Wrekin. The Wrekin stands out in the flat landscape of the area.

Evidence suggests that during the Iron Age the land here was farmed, with people living in small farms and working the fertile land. A number of these farms have been detected from both aerial photographs and more recently using geophysical survey, with at least 5 farms found on the Attingham Estate. We think each one would have been a small settlement with a ditch or fence around it with a small entranceway. Within the fence may have stood a roundhouse dwelling with several service buildings, areas where cattle were kept, and rubbish pits. The land around would have been divided up into a series of small fields. These farms likely continued in use into, and throughout, the Roman period and may have supplied food to the nearby Roman city.

This artist impression is based on one of the enclosures found at Attingham, as part of a recent geophysics survey.

AD 43 to AD 410

Watling Street and Viroconium

A legionary fortress was established at Wroxeter (Viroconium) in around 53 AD. This was a small part of the vast Roman Empire. A Roman legionary was a professional heavy infantryman of the Roman army. Roman legionaries served as a source of labour and expertise. Roads, canals, and bridges were built by legionaries as well as more defensive structures, such as fortresses and walls.

Wroxeter developed from a legionary fortress into the fourth largest walled city (180 acres) in Britannia. The northern portion of the city and its defences lie within the present Attingham Estate. Although, today its remains lie buried beneath the ground. The Roman road, running north to Whitchurch, ran across the estate with military marching and practice camps functioning as posting stations (a rest stop) on long journeys. A recent geophysical survey has identified other Roman routes leading west from the city and evidence for further settlements immediately around the town.

Roman objects were found in 1798 when Repton’s designs for the parkland were being carried out along the River Tern and Severn. The Roman city was rediscovered in 1859 when workmen began excavating the baths complex. During the 1950s, the Shropshire Adult Education College and the University of Birmingham ran archaeological digs at Wroxeter. A recent survey has greatly increased our knowledge of the landscape of the Attingham in the Roman period.

The Romans withdrew from Britain in around AD 410 and the city centre of Wroxeter gradually fell into disuse and became abandoned, although a small community survived in the local area.

AD 450 to AD 1066

Anglo-Saxon Palace

Following the Roman period, the population on the Attingham estate moved to the north where two rare Anglo-Saxon halls have been found. The site was first identified in the 1970s by aerial photography during a dry summer which showed two long halls in cropmarks.

A dig in 2017 confirmed that these were indeed two Anglo Saxon great halls. Each hall was timber-framed with evidence of wattle and daub walls, and measured c.25m in length. Radiocarbon dates showed that the buildings construction dated from around 650AD. High status buildings such as these were likely used by kings and lords for as hunting bases and for feasting, not unlike the great mead halls described in Anglo Saxon poetry. The buildings seem to occupy an area that was also used in both prehistory and into the Roman period.

Evidence of the Anglo Saxons is rare and finds like these suggest there was an established and well-resourced community in this region, giving us new clues about the region's role the early Medieval period. 

1066 to 1547

Medieval villages and farms

During the Medieval period the landscape of Attingham was settled and farmed, with scattered farms and small villages making up much of the area. The Domesday Book records four manors on the estate, at Uckington, Atcham, Brompton and Berwick, they varied in size and extent.

The village of Berwick Maviston is first mentioned in the Domesday Book and was recorded to be home to 11 households in 1086. In 1793, Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick, extended the parkland around the Mansion and demolished the remaining buildings of the medieval village of Berwick Maviston to incorporate land bought by his grandfather 40 years earlier. The tenants were subsequently rehoused at Berewick Wharf.

Not many Medieval buildings survive, but traces have been left in the landscape that give us a clue what the area will have looked like in this period. Much of the land was dominated by open fields and extensive evidence survives for strip fields and ridge and furrow remains give evidence for ploughing techniques.

Ridge and furrow field systems show up clearly as distinctive striping effect on LiDAR imagery. This map focusses on the area surrounding the modern entry and exit points of Attingham and shows that open field systems once covered much of the land which was converted to parkland in the 18th century.

Uckington Heath, at the meeting point of the parishes of Atcham and Wroxeter, provided common grazing, fuel and other resources for its surrounding communities. Flood plain meadows along the Severn will also have served a similar purpose.

Field and place names such as ‘middle coppice’, ‘grotto coppice’, and ‘clay pits’, give us clues as to how the rest of the land was used in this period. The rivers would have played an important role, with evidence for both fisheries at Cronkhill and Duncote as well as corn mills along the Severn and Tern at Atcham, Duncote and Uckington.

1547 to 1714

Attingham Estate

Richard Hill bought the land at Atcham in 1700, it came indirectly from land taken from Haughmond Abbey during the Dissolution. In 1701 he built Tern Hall, a Queen Anne style house with bow fronted windows. He bequeathed the estate to his sister Margaret and her son, Thomas Harwood, on his death in 1727.

Attingham's current regency mansion was built right in front of Tern Hall in 1782. Tern Hall was later demolished, but echoes of this earlier country house can still be seen in the Inner Courtyard. Over the next century, the family added land to the estate until there were over 8,000 acres, extending right up into Shrewsbury. The estate today consists of 4,000 acres.

From the 17^th century the landscape will have started to look more similar to how it does today. The open fields were gradually enclosed in a bit by bit, with fields initially smaller than they are today.  As the estate and parkland grew further farms were acquired, and roads altered to make way for the parkland. Woodland, such as Ravenshaws Gorse, were planted to provide the estate with wood and timber and to provide game cover. The estate consists of 11 farms, often on sites with Medieval origins, most have crop storage buildings and Dutch barns which suggest a dairy focus.

1939 to 1945

RAF Atcham

RAF Atcham opened late in August 1941 as a two-squadron fighter station. It became a base for the 31st Fighter Group of the US Army Air Force in June 1942, and was used for training fighter pilots. Its layout followed a standard pattern for WWII airfields, with accommodation dispersed all around Attingham Estate.

It had over 1650 personnel at its peak and had a substantial impact on the landscape. Many features visible in historical aerial photographs including tarmac runways, associated tracks and turning circles still survive, either buried beneath the surface or as standing buildings and structures.

Today visitors to Attingham can see some of the archaeological remains of RAF Atcham on the WWII Walk in the Deer Park.