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square fort, now almost wholly destroyed, in
area about 7½ acres, with rounded corners, walls of rubble
concrete, faced and bonded with local sandstone, and, as it
seems, external bastions at one gate. It has yielded a few early
coins, and much that is datable to the fourth century. There can
be little doubt that it was a fort in the fourth century, and
its name identifies it with Branodunum. Some of its structural
details, in particular its shape, have suggested that the site
was first occupied and the ramparts built at an earlier time.
But we know too little of the remains to be able to speak with
confidence on this point.8
(2) Burgh Castle, near Yarmouth, situated close to
the junction of the rivers Yare and Waveney and the landlocked
expanse of Breydon Water. In shape and size it is an irregular
oblong of some five acres, planted on a cliff 40 ft. above the
river, but extending down the slope to marsh level, that is, to
the water’s edge. Except on this side its walls still stand
high and strong. They are constructed of concrete rubble with
flint facing and bonding tiles, strengthened with external
circular towers. The remains found here belong almost wholly to
the fourth century, and thus connect it with the Saxon Shore,
while the river name Yare and other evidence justify its
identification with Gariannonum.9
(3) Felixstowe. The Roman site here, Walton Castle,
has long been swept away by the sea. But the accounts and
drawings of it which survive show that it was defended by a wall
of concrete rubble with bonding tiles, strengthened apparently
by external bastions, while abundant remains, found especially
in a neighbouring cemetery, indicate an occupation during the
fourth century and perhaps earlier. We cannot positively prove
that it ever was a fort. But all we know of it agrees with such
a theory. As to its Roman name we have no evidence.10
(4) Bradwell, on the Essex coast, in a sheltered
position near the mouths of the Blackwater and the Colne and
opposite to Mersea Island. Here was a rectangular fort, girt
with a wall of the usual type—concrete rubble core, bonding
tiles, round external towers. Much of it has perished by the
encroachments of the sea, but its one perfect side is 500 ft.
long, and it probably covered about five acres, like Burgh
Castle. The coins found here date from A.D. 260—400; those of
the fourth century are commonest. The name of the place in early
English days, Ithanceaster, identifies it almost certainly with
Othona.11
(5) Reculver, on the north coast of Kent, the Roman
Regulbium: p. 19.
7 Short accounts of the
Saxon Shore are given by Lewin, Arch. xli, 421—52, C.
R. Smith, Coll. Ant. vii, i 52—69, and others, and
individual forts have been described by various writers named
below. In general, they have tended to neglect the historical
side of the subject. An excellent summary of the facts, as known
in 1914, is given by Haverfield in Pauly-Wissowa’s Real-Encyclopädie,
ii, A (s.v. ‘ Saxonicum Litus ‘). For a brief sketch of
later discoveries, see G. Macdonald in Funfundzwanzig Jahre
Romisch-Germanische Kommission (Frankfurt, 1929), 107 ff.
8 V.C.H. Norfolk, i, 303—5. See
further below.
9 Harrod, Norfolk Archaeology, V,
146; Fox, Arch. Journ. xlvi, 348; lvii, 120; Ives,
Gariannonum (ed.
2).
10 Fox, Arch. Journ. lvii,115 and
Y.C.H. Suff. i, 287.
11 Lewin, Arch. xli, 439; M. V. Taylor,
Essex Arch. Soc. Trans. xvii; Roy. Com. Hist. Mons.
S.E.
Essex, xxxviii and 13. |