Three miles and a half east of the town, is delightfully seated on the banks of the Severn, over which there is a handsome bridge of seven arches, designed by Mr. Gwyn, a native of Shrewsbury.
The etymology of the place seems to be derived from Eatta, a Saxon saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. It was anciently called Ettingeham and Attingesham. In the Saxon period it belonged to the college of St. Alkmund, Shrewsbury; and when that church was annexed to Lilleshull Abbey, the advowson of Atcham made part of the transfer.
The present edifice consists of a nave without aisles; the predominant styles of the windows may be attributed to the fifteenth century; some of them are decorated with stained glass. The interior contains monuments belonging to the family of Burton, of Longner, removed hither on the fall of St. Chad’s church, Salop [219]
The basement of the tower is early Norman, and flanked with broad shallow buttresses. The portal at the west is a deeply recessed round arch, resting on five slender pillars on each side; above is an early lancet window, over which is another of smaller dimensions, bisected by a short pillar into narrow lights. The superstructure of the tower (like many others in the vicinity) is of the sixteenth century, and was once crowned with eight pinnacles, the remains of which are now only visible above the frieze of the battlements.
The village is remarkable as being the birth-place of Ordericus, the earliest Salopian historian. He was the son of Odelerius Constantius, of Orleans, a chief councillor to Roger de Montgomery, born (as he informs us) Feb. 16, 1075, “and on the Easter Sunday following was baptised by Ordericus the priest at Ettingesham, in the church of St. Eatta the Confessor,” and received the rudiments of his education under Siward the priest, in the little church of St. Peter, Shrewsbury, on the site of which the stately Benedictine abbey was afterwards built. Ordericus’s great work is entitled an “Ecclesiastical History,” but is more properly a record of the events of his own time.
Atcham once had the privilege of a fair, and the inhabitants were styled burgesses.
Opposite the inn, a pleasant drive leads through the village of Uffington, by which Shrewsbury may be regained. Continuing our course for half a mile on the London road, we pass over Tern Bridge, below which the river Tern fells into the Severn. On the left, Attingham Hall, the elegant mansion of the Right Hon. Lord Berwick, with its lofty portico, forms a bold and imposing object, and its beautiful situation near the confluence of the rivers Tern and Severn, imparts an additional charm to the surrounding scenery. To the right is
WROXETER.
This village was the metropolis of the Cornavii, a tribe of Britons settled in Shropshire and some of the adjoining counties at the period when Julius Cæsar first invaded this island. On the subjugation of the Britons this place became the flourishing Roman station of Uriconium,—Wriconium, synonymous with the adjoining Wrekin, [221]—subsequently Wrekincester, and by contraction Wroxeter.
It is situated on a gentle eminence above the Severn, possessing those advantages which the Romans generally kept in view, viz. dryness of soil, extensive prospect, and the protection of a river. From the almost impenetrable obscurity in which its early history is involved, no adequate idea can now be formed of the pristine state of this interesting place.