How they worked

Walls, towers and one way in

How a Saxon Shore fort was put together, and what went on inside.

Jump to: Early forts | Later forts: walls and towers | The way in | Shapes and sizes | Inside | What were they for?

Early forts: the playing-card plan

Brancaster, Caister and Reculver have “playing card” plans: rectangular, with rounded corners. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison The early forts had stone walls backed by broad earth banks (ramparts) on the inside. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

Reculver fort measured 180 metres by 175 metres. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort Reculver had four gateways, one in the middle of each side. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort

Reculver’s wall would once have been topped with a wall walk and a parapet. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort Reculver’s flint walls were backed with earth banks and surrounded by two ditches 10 metres wide. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort

Caister was a fort of nearly 3.5 hectares, roughly square. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

Later forts: walls and towers

English Heritage’s Reculver history says later Saxon Shore forts, such as Richborough, Pevensey and Portchester, were built to a new model with projecting bastions. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort

Most of the later forts have massive stone walls up to 4 metres wide and up to 8 metres high. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison A new feature was massive towers jutting out from the walls and at the corners, so soldiers could fire along the walls. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

Pevensey’s D-shaped wall towers were a new feature of Roman forts at the time. English Heritage: History of Pevensey 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

Burgh’s walls were about 3.5 metres wide at the base, narrowing to 1.5 metres at their full height of about 4.5 metres. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort Burgh’s walls were faced inside and out with cut flint and tile in alternating bands. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort

Each of Burgh’s towers has a round hole in the middle, either for fixing catapults called ballistae or to hold up wooden watchtowers. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort

Pevensey’s west wall survives almost to its full height of about 8 metres. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

The way in

The later forts have fewer gates than earlier forts, usually with a single opening. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison At Portchester and Pevensey the gates are set back from the line of the wall, so defenders could attack from three sides. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

Shapes and sizes

The later forts vary in shape, from the long rectangle of Burgh Castle and the square of Portchester to the irregular polygon of Lympne and the long oval of Pevensey. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

Pevensey’s walls form an irregular oval, enclosing 4 hectares. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Burgh Castle enclosed about 2.4 hectares (6 acres). English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort

Pevensey’s Roman walls are more than 500 metres (1,640 feet) long. English Heritage: Pevensey Castle

Inside

Most buildings inside the later forts were probably made of wood. 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

At Portchester, women and children lived inside the fort alongside the soldiers. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Brooches, beads, bracelets and hairpins found at Caister suggest women and children lived in the fort. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort

Finds at Caister include charred grain, fish bones and over 10,000 oyster shells. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort

Digs between 1959 and 1969 found barracks, a bath-house and the headquarters building at Reculver. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort

Caister had a garrison of between 500 and 1,000 men. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort The garrisons listed in the Notitia are mainly infantry (soldiers on foot). English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

The Notitia says Burgh’s garrison was the Stablesian cavalry unit. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort

What were they for?

English Heritage’s Burgh Castle page says the forts are thought to have acted as a defence against seaborne raiders, as naval bases and as defended trading centres. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort English Heritage’s Caister page says the forts are thought to have acted as a defence against Saxon seaborne raiders. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort

Their sites could help them look after warships patrolling the coast and protect merchant ships and trade. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison Some forts seem to have worked as pairs, such as Reculver and Richborough at opposite ends of the Wantsum Channel. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

English Heritage’s Portchester history says the forts were built over the 3rd century to meet the threat of Saxon pirates raiding the south coast. English Heritage: History of Portchester Castle

English Heritage’s Pevensey history says it is not clear whether the forts were set up as one joined-up defensive system. English Heritage: History of Pevensey Castle

Our sources describe what the forts were for in different ways: see when sources disagree.

Our sources are not sure the forts were one system: see when sources disagree.

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