Wroxeter in Shropshire was in roman times the 4th largest city in Britain. It’s under the care of English Heritage these days, and since I was in the neighbourhood I had to pay it a visit. The tallest part of the site is know as “The Old Work” and is a 7 meter tall chunk of what was the basilica. At 7 meters it’s the tallest free standing piece of roman wall in the country.
I took along my “lightweight kit”. The Pentax ME Super with the 50mm f1.4, loaded with a roll of the old Ilford FP4 movie stock that I’m using up from 1998! Having a good amount of stock to use, as opposed to trying a single roll of something, means that one can “iron out the creases” a bit, and get use to both shooting the stock and developing it. I think I’ve just about got the method now.
Next to the basilica were the baths, a great leisure activity of the roman’s! The hot bath site is huge, and had a raised floor so hot air cold be circulated underfloor. A smaller pool next door has been un-earthed and it’s thought that this was an outside cold pool. In the background is the welcome centre/ticket office.
What is un-earthed is but a tiny part of what is thought to be there. It could be about the size of Pompeii. Just across the lane there is a reconstruction of a roman townhouse, that was made in 2010 for a Chanel 4 TV programme, based on a house found on the site. Certainly worthy of a few images!
I like the tonality of the image above, although I admit it’s not the most exciting photo ever made! The film I think scans well, and I can’t really see any difference to fresh stock – that’s a testament to good old Ilford. The ME Super performed perfectly too. I’m glad I paid out more than the camera was technically worth to have it served by Pentax. It’s lovely to use!!
S.H.O.U.T. 