Walton Castle | |
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![]() Walton Castle stood on the cliffs at Felixstowe | |
Type | Saxon Shore fort |
Location | |
Coordinates | 51°58′20″N1°22′48″E / 51.972151°N 1.380014°E |
County | Suffolk |
Country | England |
Reference | |
UK-OSNG reference | TM32253580 |
Walton Castle was a Saxon Shore Fort in the Roman province of Britannia. The fort was reused by the Normans who used it as the bailey for a castle. It stood 30 metres above sea level but was destroyed by coastal erosion in the 18th century. It was located in the village of Walton, Suffolk, now part of Felixstowe (grid reference TM32253580 ).
It is uncertain if Walton Castle is one of the Saxon Shore forts listed in the 5th century Notitia Dignitatum . It has sometimes been identified with the Portus Adurni which appears in the list. [1] In the modern era though it has become more common to identify Portus Adurni with the Saxon Shore Fort at Porchester. [1]
Walton Castle was a Saxon Shore type fort, probably built in the late 3rd century. [2] Much of our knowledge of the fort derives from an outline drawing and plan of 1623, as well as some 18th-century literary accounts. [2] The 1623 drawings show a plan similar to Burgh Castle to the north. [3] Forward projecting curvilinear towers are present at the corners of the fort. [3] The walls have flint facing with brick bonding courses. [3] The presence of forward-projecting towers with rounded corners is thought to be good evidence for a construction date contemporary with other Saxon Shore forts such as Burgh Castle and Othona. [3]
In 1722 the remains were described as: [4]
"'Tis 100 yards long, five-foot above ground, 12 broad at each end and turned with an angle. Its composed of Pepple and Roman bricks in three courses, all round footsteps of buildings, and several large pieces of Wall cast down upon the Strand by the Seas undermining ye Cliff all which have Roman brick. At low water mark very much of the like is visible some distance in the Sea. There are two entire pillars with Balls, the Cliff is 100-foot high."
In an account of 1754 the length of the west wall is given more accurately as 187 yards, and it is described as being "nine feet thick". [4]
Roman finds found in the vicinity of the fort suggest the existence of an extensive Roman settlement occupied over a long period. [2] It was probably a vicus, and a port [2] [5]
There may have been a second fort on a promontory around six miles south of Walton Castle. The location, on West Rocks, is now about three miles out to sea. [6]
According to Bede, a place called Dommoc often linked with Dunwich on the Suffolk coast was the seat of East Anglia's first bishop, Felix of Burgundy, in the 7th century, from whom Felixstowe takes its name. There is some evidence that Walton Castle was the location of Dommoc, where there appears to have been a church dedicated to St Felix inside the walls in the 12th century. [7]
The fort was subsequently reused by the Normans who used it as the bailey for a castle built there by one of the Bigod earls, probably Roger Bigod who died in 1107. [2] The castle was strengthened by Hugh Bigod, Roger's son, but was confiscated and garrisoned by Henry II in the 12th century, following Hugh's involvement in the Revolt of 1173–1174. [4] In 1175-6 the castle was dismantled (slighted) by Henry and used in the construction of Orford Castle [ dubious ]. [2] It was one of at least twenty cases belonging to the rebels to be slighted in the aftermath of the conflict. [8] The walls of the Roman fort survived this demolition, and the plan of 1623 shows ruins in the northeast corner which presumably were the remains of the castle. [2]
Although the fort was still standing in 1623, it is clear by the account of 1722 that by that date at least one wall had fallen over the eroding cliff. In Kirby's Suffolk Traveller (2nd edition, 1754) it is stated that around 1740 the west wall of the fort was still standing, but that by 1754 "the Sea hath washed away the remainder of the Foundation." [4] When Francis Grose published his The Antiquities of England and Wales in 1786, he included a picture drawn in 1766 which shows the slumped ruins of the wall lying on the beach below the cliff. He stated that it was "only visible at near low water". [4]
In the modern era, it is said (correctly) that remnants of the walls can still be seen at some distance from the beach during exceptionally low tides at Felixstowe. [9]
The ruins of the fort are visible (May 2020) at very low spring tides when the tidal height is less than 0.2 metres. Spring tides occur on full or no moon. In February 2024, with a tide of 0.2 metres, some ruins were visible.
Felixstowe is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 72 miles (116 km) northeast of London.
Portchester Castle is a medieval fortress that was developed within the walls of the Roman Saxon Shore fort of Portus Adurni at Portchester, to the east of Fareham in Hampshire.
This article describes the history of Suffolk, the English county.
Walton is a settlement and former civil parish, now in the parish of Felixstowe, in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the rivers Orwell and Deben. In 1911 the parish had a population of 4226.
Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman Saxon Shore fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a scheduled monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors. Built around 290 AD and known to the Romans as Anderitum, the fort appears to have been the base for a fleet called the Classis Anderidaensis. The reasons for its construction are unclear; long thought to have been part of a Roman defensive system to guard the British and Gallic coasts against Saxon pirates, it has more recently been suggested that Anderitum and the other Saxon Shore forts were built by a usurper in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent Rome from reimposing its control over Britain.
Dubris, also known as Portus Dubris and Dubrae, was a port in Roman Britain on the site of present-day Dover, Kent, England.
Felix of Burgundy, also known as Felix of Dunwich, was a saint and the first bishop of the kingdom of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom. Almost all that is known about him comes from The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed by the English historian Bede in about 731, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Bede wrote that Felix freed "the whole of this kingdom from long-standing evil and unhappiness".
Sigeberht of East Anglia, was a saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the first English king to receive a Christian baptism and education before his succession and the first to abdicate in order to enter the monastic life. The principal source for Sigeberht is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was completed in the 730s.
Trimley St. Martin is a parish and village that lies between the rivers Orwell and the Deben, on the long narrow tongue of land from Ipswich to Felixstowe referred to as the Colneis Hundred.
Gariannonum, or Gariannum, was a Roman Saxon Shore fort in Norfolk, England. The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman Army "order of battle" from about AD 400, lists nine forts of the Saxon Shore in south and east England, among which one was called Gariannonor. It has been much discussed over the years in terms of spelling, purpose, and location. The fort is listed as being commanded by the Praepositus equitum stablesianorum, implying its garrison was a cavalry of a form originated in the late 3rd century, the Equites Stablesiani. Both proposed sites show archaeological evidence for military occupation beginning at around the time this type of unit began use.
Dommoc, a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of Suffolk, was the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the Kingdom of East Anglia. It was established by Sigeberht of East Anglia for Saint Felix in c. 629–631. It remained the bishopric of all East Anglia until c. 673, when Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, divided the see and created a second bishopric at either North Elmham, Norfolk, or South Elmham, Suffolk. The see of Dommoc continued to exist until the time of the Viking Wars of the 860s, after which it lapsed.
Portus Adurni was a Roman fort in the Roman province of Britannia situated at the north end of Portsmouth Harbour. It was part of the Saxon Shore, and is the best-preserved Roman fort north of the Alps. Around an eighth of the fort has been excavated.
Anderitum was a Saxon Shore fort in the Roman province of Britannia. The ruins adjoin the west end of the village of Pevensey in East Sussex, England. The fort was built in the 290s and was abandoned after it was sacked in 471. It was re-inhabited by Saxons and in the 11th century the Normans built a castle within the east end of the fort.
The Saxon Shore was a military command of the Late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the "Count of the Saxon Shore". In the late 4th century, his functions were limited to Britain, while the fortifications in Gaul were established as separate commands. Several well-preserved Saxon Shore forts survive in east and south-east England.
Portus Lemanis, also known as Lemanae, was the Latin name of a Roman Saxon Shore fort, settlement and port in southern Kent. The modern village of Lympne derives its name from the ancient port. The site, known locally as Stutfall Castle, is on private land which is accessible by public footpath.
Othona or Othonae was the name of an ancient Roman fort of the Saxon Shore at the sea's edge near the modern village of Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex, England. The Old English name Ythanceaster for the locality derives from the Roman name.
Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around 92 miles (148 km) north-east of London, 9 miles (14 km) south of Southwold and 7 miles (11 km) north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast.
Clausentum was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. The site is believed to be located in Bitterne Manor, which is now a suburb of Southampton.
Caister Roman Site is a Roman Saxon Shore fort, located in Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk, England. It was constructed around AD 200 for use by units of the Roman army and navy, and was occupied until around 370-390 AD. This fort was possibly known as Gariannonum, although the single record that describes it as such may also mean the Roman site at Burgh Castle.
Burgh Castle is the site of one of nine Roman Saxon Shore forts constructed in England around the 3rd century AD, to hold troops as a defence against Saxon raids up the rivers of the east and south coasts of southern Britain. It is located on the summit of ground sloping steeply towards the estuary of the River Waveney, in the civil parish of Burgh Castle, in the county of Norfolk.