Time Team Forum Friends :: View topic – TTFF trip – Richborough

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:19 pm    Post subject: TTFF trip – Richborough

images can be found here

http://ourpasthistory.com/TTF/album32

report by mark mcmanus

On a chilly and damp morning the seven of us convened at our designated meeting place: Co, Caz and me (Sir Mark). We were accompanied by Charlotte, Faye, Emily and Lauren – the first TTFF trip in which children outnumbered the adults? 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 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. Two brief stops followed this visit, to the replica Viking ship Hugin at Ebbsfleet and to St Augustine’s Cross. The former was a gift from the Danish government in 1949 and commemorates the anniversary, in AD449, of Hengist and Horsa’s arrival – according to ancient texts, invited by Vortigern to defend the land against incursions by the Scotti and the Picts. The latter, erected by the Victorians, marks the area where Augustine met King Aethelbert of Kent upon landing in AD597 and baptised him into the Christian faith. Our final visit was to the remnants of another Saxon Shore fort at Reculver. Originally named Regulbium, this was one of the earliest of those forts and has suffered over the centuries from the incursion of the sea. The walls can still be traced on the east, south and (partially) the west sides. Dominating the interior of the fort are the twin towers of the church built by the Normans and which were only saved from destruction in the nineteenth century by virtue of being maritime landmarks! The church was built around a Saxon Minster and the remains of this earlier building can be easily seen in the shadow of the towers. Two columns from this building can be found in Canterbury Cathedral. It was a cold and exhilarating day but the rain held off, the younger members of the party thoroughly enjoyed themselves (to the extent of all save Lauren suffering minor injuries during their excited explorations), and the trip was a success! images can be found here

http://ourpasthistory.com/TTF/album32

_________________Corinne Mills

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