Due to geological serendipity, this area provided an abundance of the raw materials needed for the industrial revolution. Thick forests provided wood then charcoal to smelt the iron ore that lay only feet beneath the ground surface. Coal burst out of the ground in bizarre areas called 'fungus' coal, and mining was often  a matter of scraping off topsoil, and harvesting it out of the ground. As these pits were exhausted, deeper mines were sunk, and the district grew covered in spoil pits. Industry flourished, canals were built to transport the heavy materials about, joined by the incline planes, a local invention. Shrewsbury was supplied with the majority of its coal from Oakengates, firstly by canal, then railway, and Oakengates coal had been used in the hypocausts of the Roman City of Wroxeter.

From: Mr Jerel Whittingham
jerel'at'whittingham.net
Cambridge

The stretch of Watling Street from London to Wroxeter was one of the most important Roman roads in England and was known to have remained in use since it was first built. The route was described in detail by Margary (Margary, 1957, 25-27) and was shown on the OS map of Roman Britain. It was shown (Hill, 1981, 138) as one of the four main roads in Anglo-Saxon England and referred to (Stenton, 1936, 3) as one of the four great roads along which 'travellers enjoyed the king's special peace' in the eleventh century. More recently much of it has disappeared beneath the A5 and the modern town of Telford. When Shrewsbury replaced Wroxeter, the road from London was diverted to finish in Shrewsbury. This meant that the last section into Wroxeter fell out of use, but its course has been established (Meeson, 1968 & Houghton, 1978). Details are included in the Shropshire Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) under number 00099 (SA153).

There is evidence of only one ford place-name associated with this section of Watling Street, which runs along high ground. This (Baugh, 1985, 285) referred to a place called 'Staniford' in the thirteenth century, where Watling Street was crossed by a stream flowing north from Hollinswood and forming the western boundary of Snedshill wood. By 1414 this area was known as 'Oakengates' and by 1447, the name 'Staneford' was attached to a settlement further west near the modern Ketley (possibly around SJ 670 110 where the Ketley brook crosses the line of Watling Street). The term straet-ford or street-ford is the usual name for a crossing of a Roman road, but the use of a name meaning 'stone-ford' would also be an accurate description.

The Roman site at Uxacona lay on this section and was generally agreed to be at Redhill, just east of Telford. There was an early fort or signal station on the high ground here (Webster, 1975, 28 & Webster, 1961-64, 132), but most of it was destroyed by the building of a reservoir. Some additional evidence for the civil settlement has been found in field-walking (Toms, 1976, 6). SMR numbers 05974 and 05986 refer to recent work by the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU) in this area. Watling Street leaves the county shortly after this and its further course was described in detail by Margary (Margary, 1957, 25-27).

Another interesting piece of local history, again supplied by Jerel Whittingham of Cambridge is this:

 "Oakengates, four miles east of Wellington, was in Medieval days famous for wells dedicated to Mammon - alum wells, whose products were much sought after for the Shrewsbury wool trade. At one time alum production was a papal monopoly, pure alum could only be produced by papal agents and the Holy See derived a large part of its income from this. It could well be that well-water, which happened to contain alum, was not affected by this rule: which would have made the Oakengates wells of particular interest." (If any one can shed more light on this, please let us know)