Place by place
What English Heritage says about each one.
Jump to: Portchester | Richborough | Pevensey | Burgh Castle | Caister | Reculver | Brancaster | Bradwell | Dover | Lympne | Walton Castle | Across the Channel
Portchester, Hampshire
Portchester Castle stands at the north end of Portsmouth Harbour. English Heritage: History of Portchester Castle Portchester’s spot beside Portsmouth Harbour has hardly been changed by the sea since Roman times. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
English Heritage’s Portchester overview says it is the best-preserved Roman fort in northern Europe, the only one whose whole circuit of walls survives little altered. English Heritage: Portchester Castle, history and stories
Three English Heritage pages describe how well it is preserved in slightly different words: see when sources disagree.
Portchester is the favoured candidate for the Roman Portus Adurni; the other candidate is the lost Walton Castle in Suffolk. English Heritage: History of Portchester Castle
Portchester’s Roman fort originally had 20 D-shaped bastions jutting out from the walls, and 14 survive. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Inside Portchester’s Roman walls there were timber houses and workshops, with animal pens, cesspits and rubbish heaps. English Heritage: History of Portchester Castle
Professor Barry Cunliffe directed major excavations at Portchester between 1961 and 1979. English Heritage: History of Portchester Castle
Richborough, Kent
The invading Roman army first came ashore at Richborough in AD 43. English Heritage: Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre The port town at Richborough was known across the Roman world as Rutupiae. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre
A mansio was an inn for messengers and officials on government business. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre
English Heritage’s Richborough history says the arch was 25 metres tall, covered in white Carrara marble from Italy. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre English Heritage’s page on the arch says it was 26 metres high. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch
Two English Heritage pages give different heights and dates for the arch: see when sources disagree.
The arch weighed around 20,000 tonnes and stood on a stone foundation 9 metres deep. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch The arch could be seen for miles out to sea, giving ships a landmark. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch
Most of the arch’s marble decoration was burned to make lime for the mortar of the fort’s walls. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch The Tudor antiquarian John Leland explored a “cave” under the arch’s foundation by candlelight. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch
In 1843 a Mr Rolfe’s workmen spent two weeks digging 16 feet (5 metres) into solid masonry before giving up. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch In 1968 Barry Cunliffe suggested that it was a four-way arch. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch
The Roman road known today as Watling Street started at the foot of the arch. English Heritage: Gateway to Britannia, Richborough’s Monumental Arch
Richborough’s amphitheatre arena was 62 metres long by 50 metres wide, with room for up to 5,000 people around it. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre The arena probably held wild animal hunts with bulls, wild boars and bears. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre
A late Roman font, used for baptisms in a Christian church, was found inside the fort at Richborough. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Tens of thousands of coins have been found across the Richborough site. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre
A timber Roman gateway has been rebuilt on its exact spot at Richborough. English Heritage: Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre
English Heritage’s Richborough history says the Wantsum Channel was up to 2 miles wide and 10 miles long. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre
Two English Heritage pages give different widths for the Wantsum Channel: see when sources disagree.
Pevensey, East Sussex
Pevensey was the biggest of the Roman “Saxon Shore” fortresses. English Heritage: Pevensey Castle Pevensey’s Roman walls are more than 500 metres (1,640 feet) long. English Heritage: Pevensey Castle
The Roman fort at Pevensey was called Anderida. English Heritage: History of Pevensey Castle The Notitia mentions a fleet, the classis Anderidaensis, named after Anderida. English Heritage: History of Pevensey Castle
English Heritage’s Pevensey history says Anderida was one of nine forts around the south and east coasts commanded by the Count of the Saxon Shore. English Heritage: History of Pevensey Castle
The sea is now a mile from Pevensey, but in about AD 300 it came right up to the walls in places. English Heritage: History of Pevensey Castle
William built a temporary fort, almost certainly inside the Roman walls. English Heritage: History of Pevensey Castle
Burgh Castle, Norfolk
Burgh Castle Roman Fort is one of the best-preserved Roman monuments in the country. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort English Heritage’s Burgh Castle history says it was built in the late 3rd century AD, on a low cliff above the Waveney estuary. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort
English Heritage’s Caister page says Burgh Castle was built sometime after AD 260. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort Burgh Castle was probably abandoned just over a hundred years after it was built. English Heritage: Burgh Castle Roman Fort
Burgh and Caister probably worked together, and one or both were known to the Romans as Gariannonum. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort
Our sources are not sure which Roman name goes with which fort: see when sources disagree.
At Burgh, one tower has fallen outward from the south wall. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort Burgh’s west wall tumbled into the marshes long ago. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort
Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk
English Heritage’s Caister page says the fort was built about AD 200, as a base for a unit of the Roman army and navy. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort Caister had a garrison of between 500 and 1,000 men. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort
The estuary Caister looked over is now mostly dry land, covered by Great Yarmouth. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort By the 4th century, raiders “came silently in fast ships”, says English Heritage. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort
Parts of Caister fort were uncovered by archaeologists between 1951 and 1955. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort
Reculver, Kent
English Heritage’s Reculver history says the fort dates from the early 3rd century AD. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort Reculver was one of the very earliest Saxon Shore forts, and traditional in its plan. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort
About half of Reculver fort has been lost to coastal erosion. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort In 1540 the sea was still a quarter of a mile north of Reculver. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort
English Heritage’s Reculver history says the Wantsum was a sea channel up to 3 miles wide. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort
Reculver’s towers act as a navigation marker for ships at sea. English Heritage: Reculver Towers and Roman Fort
Brancaster, Norfolk
Brancaster (Branodunum) guarded the approaches to the Wash; its remains are now almost entirely under the ground. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Brancaster has an arena for training cavalry horses, a rare find in Britain. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex
At Bradwell-on-Sea (Othona), the 7th-century chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall stands on the site of the Roman fort’s west gate. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison At Bradwell, the fort’s eastern wall has never been found. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Dover, Kent
At Dover (Dubris), a fort was built for the classis Britannica, a Roman fleet based in the English Channel. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Dover’s first fort was abandoned around AD 225, and a new fort was built about AD 270. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Lympne, Kent
Lympne (Portus Lemanis), on Romney Marsh, was built as an irregular pentagon; landslips have broken and moved huge chunks of its wall. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Several sections of Lympne’s wall survive, up to 6 metres tall. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Walton Castle, Suffolk
Walton Castle in Suffolk, another Roman fort, was destroyed by coastal erosion in the 18th century. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Walton Castle is not mentioned in the Notitia, but is of similar design to the later forts. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Across the Channel
The Notitia also lists two places across the Channel on the Saxon Shore: Oudenburg (now in Belgium) and Aardenburg (Netherlands). English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Oudenburg and Aardenburg, across the Channel, had probably first been built to fight off coastal raids by Germanic tribes. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
The fort at Oudenburg was rebuilt in AD 325 to 330, with wall towers like those of the later British forts. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison
Some of these places are dated or measured differently by different sources. More on when sources disagree.
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