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Richborough Roman Fort
Our first visit was to Richborough, one of the earliest and most important sites in Roman Britain. The invading legions established a bridgehead fort here in AD43, when the area was a small island separated from a peninsular by a short stretch of swamp. Once the conquest was consolidated the site was used as a supply base, with granaries and timber shops and a mansio ( a Roman 'motel').
However, by AD85 the supply base had given way to a growing, thriving port Rutupiae mentioned by Tacitus, provided with an ampitheatre and famed for its oysters! A huge triumphal arch was erected to mark the entrance to the province of Britannia, a four-way monument standing on a raised plinth and reaching 25 metres in height. On top of this Arch stood a colossal bronze statue, fragments of which have been recovered, but who this statue represented remains unknown.
By the mid-third century the importance of Rutupiae had declined in tandem with the growing importance of nearby Dubris (Dover), and the Arch - now in disrepair - was probably used as a lookout post for a small fort with earthen ramparts which had been erected around it.
The mansio, however, was still in use as the fort's ditches stopped short of this structure, although around this time it was converted into a bath house.
Late in the century the site was brought into the 'Saxon Shore' chain of forts, and the massive walls which today dominate the site were constructed. The remains of the Arch were finally demolished and the fort's headquarters built on the foundations.
Its garrison was the Second Legion Augusta, having left their legionary base at Caerleon.
In the post-Roman centuries, the fort became a Christianised site - a font has been found in one corner of the fort and a chapel dedicated to St Augustine was built near the ruins of the Arch, and was still in use up to the 17th century
Co by the west wall - Watling Street started just to the right
Today the sea has receded by more than a mile and no trace remains of the town surrounding the fort save the mound of the amphitheater on the near horizon, grazed by cattle. However, a cursory examination of a field west of the fort, where Watling Street begins as a farm track, revealed oyster fragments, coursing tiles and several small pieces of pottery in the ploughsoil - all that remains of one of Britannia's foremost ports.
Author Mark McManus
photos by Caz
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