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Richborough, Kent

We visted Richborough on a bright day in June. The wind blew over a green and empty landscape. High walls, ragged with centuries of weathering and theft surrounded a huge open area full of ditches and outlines of lost buildings, all centred on a raised gravel area shaped like a cross. I'd bought the guide book and listened to the audio guide in the wrong order. And slowly a picture of a lost world emerged of what was once the gateway to Britain.

The first physical remains of the Roman invasion of 43AD can be seen at Richborough, in the form of two short parallel ditches, which once ran across a headland reaching out into what was then the Wantsum Channel. This channel, three miles wide in some places, divided the Isle of Thanet from the mainland, and offered a short cut up to the Thames Estuary. Entering the channel, a ship would pass an easily defended headland, and this is where Claudius probably decided to land in 43AD. He immediately dug a defensive ditch across the headland, followed by a wooden pallisade. Perhaps as many as forty thousand troops then disembarked, and the invasion of Britain began. Initially Richborough acted as a supply base for the army and navy, and the outlines of some of the early buildings of this period have been marked out. An inn, or mansio, was built to cater for the many travellers passing through, the remains of which can still be seen.

 

Looking through the Monumental Arch.

As Richborough was the principle point of entry into Britain from the continent, the stream of people passing through was never ending. By 85AD Richborough was given a huge symbolic archway to proclaim this place as the gateway to Britain. This enormous Monumental Arch was eighty two feet high and clad with expensive Italian marble. People disembarked at the harbour at the bottom of the hill, climbed the slope, and then a flight of steps, which took them up to a corridor through the Monumental Arch into Britannia. The road that ran away from the arch was Watling Street, which ran all the way to Shrewsbury, and is marked by the course of the modern A2 and A5. Today only the foundations of the arch survive, the cross in the gravelled area in the centre of the site. The cross marks out the corridors which ran below the arch, supported on each side by four massive pillars. A few remnants of these pillars can still be made out.

 

The walls of the stone fort at the North Gate

By the second century Richborough was a busy civilian settlement, called Rutupiae, covering about fifty acres. Shops opened to serve the passing trade on the road just beyond the Arch. The mansio was rebuilt in stone. This was Richborough's hayday. Soon, however, the military presence returns, in response to raids by Saxon pirates in the third century. The Archway fell into disrepair, and was possibly used as a watch tower. A series of three ditches were dug, surrounding an earth rampart topped by a wooden palisade. By 275AD the town and the monumental arch were pulled down and a stone fort built in its place. The walls of this fort are the most obvious feature of the site as it appears today. The mansio was demolished, and a smaller bath house built where it once stood, the baths of which can still be clearly seen. In 286, soon after these works were completed, Carausius was appointed by Emperor Diocletion to stop pirate raids in the English Channel. Carausius took his own cut from the pirates, and was condemned to death when news of this reached Rome. To save himself Carausius declared himself empeor of an independent Britannia, and ruled as such until 293, when he was murdered by one of his ministers, Allectus. Allectus ruled an independent Britannia himself for only three years, before the province was reinvaded. The turmoil of these years must have been strongly felt at Richborough. Of the 56,000 Roman coins found at the site, 25,000 of them date from between 288 and 402, indicating much activity during this time.

By the early 400s the time of the Romans in Britain was over. With attacks increasing on the continental empire, troops were withdrawn. The fort was left to the Saxon invaders. Richborough, then, charts the entire course of British Roman history. Ditches dug to defend troops who waded ashore in 43AD, can be seen along with walls built to withstand attacks on the Roman Empire which took the Romans away in about 410. Afterwards Richborough became a religious site, emphasising the closeness so often seen in military and religious architecture - see History of Castles. The outlines of a small church dedicated to St Augustine, who landed as a missionary near here in 597 have been preserved.

This image is by Adam Brookes

Today Richborough is a quiet place, and is no longer the gateway to anywhere. The arch has gone, and Watling Street disappears over the defensive ditches into the fields beyond. People now generally enter Britain through Heathrow. When Norman Foster designed Terminal Five he was designing the modern equivalent of the Monumental Arch. Terminal Five is built to look impressive, the ceiling is arch shaped, and thousands of people pass through it, many of them stressed after a long journey and angry about lost luggage. Terminal Five is probably the closest we can get now to the Richborough experience of the third century. This is something to bear in mind in the peaceful surroundings of Richborough today.

A small selection of the items found at Richbourough during excavation in the 1920s, can be viewed in the small museum. The rest of the collection is held in storage, and can be viewed by arrangement.

Directions: Richborough is just off the A256 in east Kent. Click here for an interactive map centred on Richborough.

Opening Times: Open daily, 21st of March to 30th of September, 10am - 6pm.

Access: There is level access to the ticket office, shop and museum. The site itself is grassy and uneven and would be difficult for people in wheelchairs. There are disabled toilet facilities, but these are portable toilets.

Contact:

telephone: 01304 612013

web site: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.14805