Reculver

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Reculver around 1685
Site of the former Reculver with the towers of the old Marienkirche
The abandoned rectory in Reculver as a temporary replacement for the Hoy and Anchor Inn 1809: The original inn stood just north of the church and west of the former Roman fort.

Reculver was a - now settled - village about five kilometers east of Herne Bay in the English county of Kent . The village area, which u. a. was built on with an auxiliary troop fort in ancient times and with a monastery in the Middle Ages, was lost to the sea at the beginning of the 19th century due to coastal erosion . Today only the ruins of the Marienkirche, which was built later, can be seen at this point. The remnants of the land on which the village of Reculver once stood are managed by English Heritage .

history

origin of the name

The earliest documented form of the place name, Regulbium , is of Celtic origin and means in German "at the headland" or "large headland". In Old English it became Raculf , sometimes Raculfceastre . This is how today's Reculver developed . The form Raculfceastre contains the Old English element ceaster (English: chester ), which often refers to a Roman settlement or enclosed city.

Roman fort

During the conquest of Britain, which began in AD 43, the Romans built a "small fort", Regulbium , on this site and laid a road to Canterbury about eight miles southwest of this small fort, indicating the presence of the Romans in Reculver proves from this point in time. Construction of a large fort or castrum began at the end of the 2nd century. The fort was abandoned in the late 4th century.

Loss to the sea

In late antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the village that was built next to the Roman fort prospered and a St. Mary's Church was built. At the beginning of the modern era, however, the settlement had to contend with land loss due to coastal erosion . Around 1540, when John Leland recorded a visit there, the coastline in the north had withdrawn to a little more than 400 m from the "town [which was then [only] a village]". A little later, in 1576, the archaeologist William Lombarde described Reculver as “poor and simple”. In 1588 there were 165 people attending Holy Communion in Reculver and in 1640 there were 169, but a map from around 1630 shows that the church was only 150 m from the coast. In January 1658, the local magistrates of the peace received a petition about the "encroachments of the sea (...) [which] since Michaelmas [29. September 1657] have stolen six cubits of land and will undoubtedly cause more damage ”. The fact that it was no longer possible to maintain two “beer shops” in the village in the 1660s clearly indicates the decline in population, and by the end of the 18th century the village was largely abandoned and residents moved to Hillborough about 2 km southwest of Reculver but still in the same parish district. John Pridden wrote in 1787 that the only goods available in Reculver were "dry biscuits, bad beer, sour cheese or weak black distillate".

Concern about the erosion of the cliff on which the church stands and about a possible flooding of the village prompted the Drainage Commission to install coastal protection devices, which until 1783 consisted of pillars and boards. Then they used a Sir Thomas Page system to protect the church: the coastal defenses had proven counterproductive as the sea water backed up behind them and further washed away the cliff. Before that, according to John Duncombe, "the sewer commission and the tax-paying users were only interested in securing the level of soil that would have to be flooded if the mound were eroded." In 1787, Reculver was "an unimportant village shrunken, which was only thinly covered with houses of fishermen and smugglers. "

In September 1804, a storm surge destroyed five houses, one of which was "an old building directly opposite the pub that looked like it was part of a monastic building". The following year, parish clerk John Brett said, "the church and the village of Reculver were safe," but in 1806 the seas began to encroach on the village. In 1807 local farmers dismantled the coastal defenses and afterwards "the village was completely abandoned to the mercy of the sea."

Today the ruined church is under the administration of English Heritage and the village has almost completely disappeared.

Individual references and comments

  1. ^ T. Mot: The Gentleman's Magazine . Plate II. 1809a. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  2. ^ E. Ekwall: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names . 4. Offsets. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1960. ISBN 978-0-19-869103-7 . P. 383.
  3. ^ AD Mills: A Dictionary of English Place-Names . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998. ISBN 978-0-19-280074-9 . P. 285.
  4. ^ J. Glover: The Place Names of Kent . Batsford, 1976. ISBN 978-0-7134-3069-1 . P. 155.
  5. ^ RF Jessup: Reculver in Antiquity . Issue 10th issue 38 (1936). ISSN  0003-598X . P. 190.
  6. ↑ There are many other Old English forms of this name.
  7. ^ E. Ekwall: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names . 4. Offsets. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1960. ISBN 978-0-19-869103-7 . P. 92, panel XXVII.
  8. ^ H. Gough: Coast erosion and Reculver in Kent Archaeological Review . Issue 149 (2002). ISSN  0023-0014 . P. 204.
  9. ^ H. Gough: The two names of a Reculver inn in Kent Archaeological Review . Issue 195 (2014). ISSN  0023-0014 . P. 188.
  10. ↑ S. Kelly: Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters Essays in Honor of Nicholas Brooks . Ashgate. S. 67. 2008. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  11. ^ S. Harris: Richborough and Reculver . English Heritage, London 2001. ISBN 978-1-85074-765-9 . P. 36.
  12. ^ J. Pridden: Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica . Nichols. P. 164, 1787. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  13. ↑ Saturday and Sunday's posts . July 21, 1783. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  14. ^ J. Duncombe: Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica . Nichols. Pp. 77, 90, 1784. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  15. ^ J. Duncombe: Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica . Nichols. P. 90, 1784. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  16. ^ J. Pridden: Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica . Nichols. 163, 1787. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  17. ↑ In 1821 Reculver was described as an important station in the "Smuggling Preventive Service".
  18. ^ Nepos: Mr. Urban . P. 319, 1821. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  19. ^ Coastguard . The National Archives. 1.1 Before the Coastguard. 2009. Archived from the original on December 12, 2011. Retrieved on April 19, 2014.
  20. ^ H. Gough: Coast erosion and Reculver in Kent Archaeological Review . Issue 149 (2002). ISSN  0023-0014 . P. 205.
  21. ↑ Canterbury, September 28 . September 28, 1804. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  22. ^ A b H. Gough: A fresh look at the Reculver parish clerk's story in Archaeologica Cantiana . No. 99 (1983). ISSN  0066-5894 . P. 135.

Web links

Commons : Regulbium  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 22 ′ 43 "  N , 1 ° 11 ′ 52.4"  E