Wrigwell Hill lies east of Ipplepen, about 5 miles west of Torquay in South Devon. It lies just to the south of a recent major find in the area, a native British settlement extending over 11 fields with Roman finds, but with no evidence as yet of a Roman settlement. Now, this is purely speculation, but supposing the Wrig- part of the name was linked to the Wrekin, Wroxeter, Wrockwardine as Anglo-Saxon Wrecon, British Uriconium, all in Shropshire east of Shrewsbury, then we may have a similar British Uriconium here ?
I only mention this, because there is a curious passage in the Ravenna Cosmography where a Uriconium appears to be in East Devon somewhere, unless it is a mistake intended for the Uriconium in Shropshire. Many of the identifications of the Devon names in this itinerary, which I have potentially identified in my companion blog in this series: 'A Roman Tour Of Ancient Devon Place Names', shows that the Romans may only have had a trading status with the places in South Devon, as with the single Roman roofing tile found at Totnes, perhaps being a trading station. Totnes is south of Wrigwell, so the same may have applied here, being further away from Exeter.
If there is a connection with Uriconium here, then Wrigwell Hill may have had a native British enclosure, smaller in scale than the Shropshire Wrekin, but a local cult centre. As I say, this is pure speculation, but we await future archaeological finds with eager interest.
The association between the Shropshire Uriconium with the massive hillfort on top of the Wrekin as the centre of the Cornovii Tribe, has long been acknowledged. If Wrigwell is also Uriconium, then this large British settlement lies very close to the tribal centre of Denbury hillfort, which was earlier known as Devenburia, the hillfort of the Devon tribe of the Dumnonii.
