Richborough Roman Site, nr. Sandwich, Kent - (EH)
Richborough, once the Roman gateway and port to England, is now a curious and wind-swept land-locked area of stone and earth-works. The different stages of occupation and construction overlap and can be quite confusing, even with the audio-guide now available to visitors.
In AD 43, under Emperor Claudius, the Romans made their second and more decisive landing in England, on the Kentish coast at Richborough. At this time, the site was a protected lagoon between the mainland and the Isle of Thanet. The invasion force is estimated to have been some 50,000 men and archaeological evidence remains of the original bridgehead built by the force's leader, the senator Aulus Plautius.
After initial consolidation and a successful engagement against the native Belgic tribe, led by Caractacus, Richborough, or Rutupiae as the Romans named the site, became the chief military and naval supply base for the continuing invasion of Britain. Roads were built to Canterbury and London and timber buildings spread out in regularly spaced blocks were constructed to house men, supplies and grain. Open fronted shops supplied the daily requirements of the army and their camp-followers and a large building with a courtyard was built on the sea-ward side of the site. It isn't clear what the function of this building was, but it probably served as some kind of administrative base, or a hotel for the constant stream of visitors.
After AD 85, the character of the site underwent some change, with the timber buildings disappearing to make way for a new and confident structure. The white marble-faced archway, estimated to be around 85ft. high, marked the entrance to the Roman province of Britain, as other archways around Europe did. In remote Britain, this enormous structure proclaimed the subjugation of the native population and the power and permanence of the Roman forces. Finds of bronze and carved marble give tantalising glimpses of what it may have looked like and the only remaining part, the foundation for the crossing pathways through the arch, now stand out on the site as a puzzling reminder of the importance of Richborough in its heyday.
Also around this time, a town lay to the west of the arch, in the area enclosed by the later earthworks and extending some distance beyond. The 'hotel' building was altered and rebuilt in stone and the remains of a cemetery and two small temples have also been discovered. There was also a small amphitheatre to the southwest, confirming the status and population of the town to be considerable. Unfortunately, the natural action of the River Stour and the construction of the railway in the mid-nineteenth century have left little trace of the harbour buildings at Richborough, although there are finds to indicate that goods were being imported through the harbour and town from Italy and the rest of the Empire.
Around the middle of the third century AD, drastic alterations were made to turn the town into a defensive fort. Much of the town was levelled and the great archway, already fallen into disrepair, turned into a look-out tower. An earth rampart and the triple ditches now re-excavated were dug. The construction seems to have been hurried and was in any case superceded in around AD 275 by the stone walled fort which is the first impression of what Richborough once was that the visitor sees today. When the walls were built, the earthen defenses, rampart and ditches, were flattened and the walls constructed on an almost square site, with corner towers and postern gates to the north and south. The walls' construction is familiar from that of other Roman sites, such as Caistor, further up the coast, with smallish squared blocks of stone or flint strengthened with horizontal strings of red tiles bonded in cement. A double ditch around the fort completed the defenses.
By then, the archway had been dismantled and the centre of the fort became a new headquarters, with wooden buildings around it. Remains of a bath block can be seen to the north east corner, where the 'hotel' building was. The fort at Richborough formed part of the ring of so-called 'Saxon Shore' forts which were built along the south eastern coast of Britain as well as the northern coast of Gaul (France).
By the end of the fourth century AD Roman forces were being gradually withdrawn, but the number of finds, especially coins, from Richborough imply that this was an unusually busy period for this particular site. An unusual building, which seems to be an early Romano-Christian church, is to the north west of the site and the hexagonal tiled basin there probably was used as a baptismal font. It is probable that this building dates from the late fourth or early fifth century and continued in use for some time after the Roman forces left. When St. Augustine arrived in Britain from Rome in AD 597, he probably passed through Richborough on his way to Canterbury, where he founded the abbey. By this time, the Romans had long gone, leaving behind their extraordinary roads and forts, villas and baths to be reused by the Romano-British tribal leaders and kings. Many of those who passed through Richborough from the various parts of the Empire would have intermarried with the native population through the centuries but the military might and protection from other invading forces, such as the Saxons, had been withdrawn.