Spotting a Saxon Shore fort

How to read a Roman fort wall

A few clues help you see how a Saxon Shore fort worked.

What to look for

• Brancaster, Caister and Reculver have “playing card” plans: rectangular, with rounded corners. 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
• 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
• 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
• 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

Which walls still stand tall?

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

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 Several sections of Lympne’s wall survive, up to 6 metres tall. English Heritage: Roman Coastal Defences and the Saxon Shore, by Paul Pattison

Burgh Castle Roman Fort is one of the best-preserved Roman monuments in the country. English Heritage: History of Burgh Castle Roman Fort

Lost to the sea, and left behind by it

About half of Reculver fort has been lost to coastal erosion. English Heritage: History of Reculver Towers and Roman Fort 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

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 The estuary Caister looked over is now mostly dry land, covered by Great Yarmouth. English Heritage: History of Caister Roman Fort

In Roman times Richborough was a small island; today it is 2 miles inland. English Heritage: History of Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre

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