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After the Romans
© Paul Highnam, Courtesy of English Heritage
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In spite of the withdrawal of the Roman armies and administration in the fifth century, the city of Wroxeter continued to survive. The decline of the Roman way of life was mirrored by the disappearance of the baths: the Saxons evidently had little regard for personal hygiene, or at least for the Roman style of bathing, so it is likely that the buildings housing the baths were employed for other purposes. Exactly what these purposes were can be inferred from what is known about similar baths, for example those at Caerleon in Wales.
Mark Lewis, curator of the Roman Legionary Museum at Caerleon, says that the Caerleon baths stood for 1000 years or so after their original construction. They probably had a number of uses throughout this period, mostly industrial, perhaps for the storage of grain. The buildings were not used for any activity of high status.
However, the baths were substantial buildings made of excellent quality materials. Having no great regard for them, the locals used the buildings as a ready source of stone far more convenient than a quarry. At Caerlon, the baths were eventually dismantled to build the local castle. The same process can be seen at Wroxeter - almost every church in the area contains Roman stone, much of it probably taken from the baths.
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