A glimpse of Pevensey in 340 AD

In 1980 local historian Stuart Murrell produced this map of the Pevensey coastline as it would have looked about 340 AD. The map was accompanied by notes on the Roman invasion of Britain and the subsequent construction of coastal defences including Pevensey. Although the notes were written with young people in mind, the map must have required considerable research and provides a fascinating glimpse of this area about the time that Fort Anderita (Pevensey Castle) was built.

In 45 AD the Romans under their Emperor Claudius (of I, Claudius fame) invaded Britain and by 100 AD the Celts (Britons) were conquered. In 128 AD the Romans completed building Hadrian’s Wall in the North to contain barbarian Picts and Scots.

The Romans brought peace, law, security, civilization and trade to the feuding Celtic tribes. In the south, under Roman protection, the Britons prospered. They adopted Roman habits, customs, luxuries and religions. Towns, roads, temples, baths and sumptuous centrally-heated country villas were built.

In the second half of the Third Century AD, barbarian sea-borne pirates, fierce and cruel Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Germany and southern Denmark began raiding the cross-Channel trade and the coasts of northern Gaul and S.E. Britain. The topography of this coastline has considerably changed since Roman times, but 1700 years ago numerous estuaries, sea lagoons and creeks gave easy access up unguarded rivers for the Saxons, in their shallow draught longboats, to plunder the rich inland areas of S.E.Britain.

By about 270 AD the Classis Britannica (the Romano-British fleet) could no longer contain these pirate hordes and to curb and repel them the Romans established a chain of 9 fortified naval bases linked by watchtowers and signal stations extending from the Isle of Wight to the Wash. Each base was protected by a massive stone fortress and were tactically sited to guard a vulnerable estuary or natural harbour such as Pevensey. Known as the Roman forts of the Saxon shore, they were constructed in the traditional Roman rectangular style between 275 and 290 AD.

The ninth and mightiest of these was Fort Anderita, built about 330 AD which completed the chain between Porchester and Lympne. Its oval shape conformed to the contours of the narrow peninsula on which it was sited. As the map shows, this peninsula formed a large natural harbour and anchorage for shipping on its northern face that was protected from the prevailing south-westerly winds and storms in the English Channel.

With thanks to Steve and Lyn Betteley for making this item of local history available.