Walton Castle (Suffolk)
| Walton Castle | |
|---|---|
| limes | Britain |
| section | Litus saxonicum |
| Dating (occupancy) | 3rd to 5th century AD |
| Type | Fleet fort? |
| unit | Classis Britannica ? |
| size | Length of the west wall approx. 171 meters |
| Construction | Stone construction |
| State of preservation | Long rectangular complex with four protruding round towers at the corners of the fort, the fort was completely destroyed by erosion |
| place | Felixstowe |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 58 '18 " N , 1 ° 22' 45.5" E |
| Previous | Fort Othona (southwest) |
| Subsequently | Gariannonum Fort (north) |
Walton Castle is the current name of a Roman fort at Felixstowe , Suffolk , England . It was part of the fortress chain of the late antique "litus saxonicum" ( Saxon coast / Wash-Solent-Limes) and secured a section on the south-east coast of Britain (especially the mouth of the Deben) from pirates and enemy invaders . After the Romans left, a monastery was set up at the fort site. Towards the end of the 12th century, the Normans built a fortification in one of the corners of the camp. It was removed a little later by King Heinrich II. The fort was completely destroyed by the end of the 18th century at the latest because of the steadily advancing coastal erosion. There is archaeological evidence of a Roman port at Walton Castle as well as a Roman villa.
Location and name
Walton lies between the mouths of the Orwell and Deben rivers and is part of the Felixstowe parish. Since the Roman name of the fort was not given in any ancient sources and it is not mentioned in the relevant part of the Notitia Dignitatum (ND occ. XXVIII), this archaeological site is known today only as Walton Castle. The Roman fort covered an area similar to Gariannonum (Burgh Castle) and stood on a 30 m high plateau, west of the coastal fort of Brackenbury and Bull's Cliff.
Research history
The castle ruins were in the 17th and 18th centuries a. a. recorded on drawings by Francis Grose , Isaac Johnson, and others. In the 19th century in particular, ancient finds (graves, ceramics, glass, jewelry, coins, etc.) were made in the cliffs around Walton Castle. In 1853 z. B. recovered two skeletons from a cliff by a certain Professor Henslow. As grave goods found u. a. four bronze bracelets that were brought to the museum in Ipswich with the bones. One can still be seen there today. In 1878, several Roman body burials were uncovered on the site between Saint Peter and Paul Church and the beach. In 1885 the Society of Antiquaries reported that near the Saint Peter and Paul Church in a field called Great Long-Dole (the Park) numerous Roman finds were again unearthed. It was a beautifully crafted vase (samien ware) and coins from the time of Septimius Severus, Gordianus, Gallienus, Victorinus, Constantinus and Arcadius. Furthermore, some urns closed with stones were recovered, which still contained the ashes and remains of bones of the deceased. In 1897, Frank Woolnough, curator of the Ipswich Museum, together with Gerald Arbuthnot, an archaeologist from London, dug a Roman garbage pit in the cliffs of Felixstowe containing Roman-British pottery shards, oysters and animal bones from ox, sheep and pigs. In 1920 a Roman deposit was discovered by HCE Hopegood on a cliff north of Brackenbury. It contained a gilded cloak fibula from the year 300, coins from Postumus and Tetricus from 269 and jawbones from various animals. In 1960, the Felixstowe Archeolocial Movement (FAV), a short-lived young student excavation association, conducted an excavation on Cliff Road and St. George Road. They were able to uncover the remains of a Roman road. The medieval monastery ruins near the fort stood until the late 18th century and were examined more closely by Stanley West in 1970. 1995 a search trench was dug near the Brackenbury Battery u. a. Contained Roman pottery from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
development
There is archaeological evidence of agricultural activity that was practiced in the Bronze Age near Walton Hall. A late Bronze Age hoard with a type 4 barb tip and an ax blade was discovered in the 19th century while building a railway west of Lilds-Site (FEX 010). Ceramic finds suggest that the place was settled by the Romans since the 2nd century. The coin series begins with specimens from AD 41 and extends to the year 402. One of these coins dates from the period between 157 and 158 (reign of Antoninus Pius ) and was recovered west of Lidl's site.
3rd to 5th century
In the early 3rd century it could have been one of the supply bases for the campaign of Septimius Severus and his sons in northern Britain. In his chronicle from the second half of the 4th century AD, Eutrop reported that around 285 AD the naval admiral Carausius received an order to pacify the English Channel from Portus Itius ( Boulogne-sur-Mer ), which from Pirates had been made unsafe, which Eutrop referred to as "Franks" and "Saxony". The raids on the British and Gallic coasts mentioned here increasingly hampered civilian sea traffic and, above all, the transfer of British merchandise and precious metals to Gaul and Rome . Due to the increasing threat to shipping in the English Channel , Carausius, later the founder of the so-called “Britannische Sonderreich”, reorganized the defense of the British Channel coast around the year 287. By building or converting existing facilities, he and his successor Allectus gradually created a dense chain of fortifications, some of which were strongly fortified, which also included the Walton camp. The Roman occupation might u. a. have also exploited the local oyster beds on a large scale. The soldiers buried the gutted shells on the beach. To this day, large quantities of it are sometimes still washed ashore.
The castle was probably built between 276 and 285 AD. Another reason for the expansion of the fortification line on the English Channel was certainly the fear of an invasion of an army of the Roman central government. At the latest when the Roman army under Flavius Stilicho became militarily active again in Britain in 398, the Roman administration established their own military district on both sides of the canal, the litus saxonicum ( Saxon coast ). The widely ramified river system of Britain enabled the Germanic invaders to advance quickly into the interior of the island in their small, shallow rowing boats. Their crews were certainly also in contact with the Roman military camps on the Gallic bank of the litus saxonicum .
7th to 13th centuries
During the early 7th century, when the Anglo-Saxon royal tomb at Sutton Hoo was being dug, Walton was an important part of the Anglo-Saxon royal estates. It might also be one of two possible locations (the other is Dunwich) where the legendary early medieval monastery of Dommoc is believed to be. According to Beda Venerabilis , Dommoc is said to have been the residence of Felix of Burgundy , the first known bishop of the East Angels. He proselytized here from 630, during the reign of King Sigebert (630–635). Dommoc was possibly a bishop's residence until the 9th century.
At the time of the Norman takeover, the holdings of Gut Walton were combined with those of Falkenham . The fort was now called " Burch ", derived from the Anglo-Saxon " Burgh " (Wehrdorf). Soon thereafter, Roger Bigod († 1077), the first Earl of Norfolk , commissioned the monks of Rochester to found a monastery in the Roman fort in memory of St. Felix. Part of the fort was re-fortified around 1170 by Hugh Bigod , Roger's second son, but later pulled back in and occupied by King Henry II (1154–1189). Between 1175 and 1176 the fortress was demolished on behalf of Heinrich, as he needed building materials for a new castle in Orford . Still, it seems that much of the Roman walls survived this destruction as well. Around 1317, the rapidly progressing soil erosion threatened the collapse of the monastery buildings and the monastic community of Walton had to move to the Abbey of Meadow, Church of St. Mary. During the 13th century the name Felixstowe appears for the first time, which soon replaced Burch and referred to a larger settlement that also included Walton.
Modern times
Most of the walls were probably upright until 1623. By 1722, at least one of the ramparts on the long side had crashed onto the beach due to the constant undercutting of the cliff by the surf. In Kirby's "Suffolk Reisen" (2nd edition, 1754) it is said that around 1740 only the western wall of the fortress was still standing. When Francis Grose published his work “The Antiquities of England and Wales” in 1786, a picture made in 1766 shows only a few scattered fragments of the fort wall on the beach below the cliff. When the tide set in, some remains of the Roman walls can still be seen today.
Fort
The images from the 17th century suggest that the long rectangular fortification was very similar to that of Gariannonum , if a little smaller. In addition, it apparently had no intermediate towers. Only the four corners of the fort were reinforced by projecting round towers. The only access was a gate ( porta praetoria ) in the east wall. The drawings also show the brick bands typical of late antiquity . Traces of the interior development were still visible at the NE corner. The brick bands are also used in the description of a certain Dr. Knight, who stated that the wall was made up of many different stone materials, most notably brick . The originally rounded corners lead to the conclusion that the fort was built at the same time as the Garrianonum (Burgh Castle) and Othona ( Bradwell-on-Sea ) facilities, and perhaps also a little later with the round towers attached to the outside.
Its remains were described by Knight in 1722 as follows:
" The west wall is about 100 yards (91.4 meters) long and five feet (1.5 meters) above the ground, it is 12 feet (3.6 meters) wide, and bends at both ends at an angle. You consists of rubble stones and triple brick strips. In the vicinity there are still traces of other buildings to be seen. Several large fragments of the wall and piles of bricks lie on the beach below the cliff. When the water level is low, much more of it can be seen in the sea at some distance including two complete pillars. The cliff is 100 feet (35 meters) high. "
In a report written in 1754, the length of the western wall is given somewhat more precisely as 187 yards (171 meters), but according to this, its width is only nine feet (2.7 meters).
garrison
Since the fort is not mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum , its occupation unit has remained unknown due to a lack of other sources. According to the Notitia, the coastal defense troops in southeastern Britain were commanded by a Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam in the 4th and 5th centuries . Whether units of the canal fleet ( Classis Britannica ) were also permanently stationed in the port of the fort is also not known, but due to the location of the fort it is very likely.
Vicus and port
Numerous Roman finds in the vicinity of the fort indicate the existence of a larger Roman civil settlement that lasted for a long time. Probably the vicus of the fort. It probably extended to today's Cliff Road and Golf Road, southwest of the fort (finds of roof and hollow tiles). The harbor could have been either in a sheltered bay (The Dip), southwest of the fort or at the mouth of the Deben, north of it.
See also
- Walton Castle (Somerset) , 17th century fortified castle in Clevedon, Somerset
literature
- William Page: The Victoria history of the county of Suffolk by Page (1861-1934), University of London. Institute of Historical Research, Vol. 1, 1907.
- Nick Fields: Rome's Saxon Shore Coastal Defenses of Roman Britain AD 250-500 . In: Fortress. Design, technology and history of key fortresses, strategic positions and defensive systems. No. 56, Osprey, December 2006.
- John Fairclough, SJ Plunkett (2000): Drawings of Walton Castle and other monuments in Walton and Felixstowe. Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archeology and History 39, Part 4, pp. 419-459.
- John Fairclough: Felixstowe Roman Port. Proc. Suffolk Inst. Archaeol. Volume XLII Part 3, 2014.
- SE West: The Excavation of Walton Priory. Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archeology and History 33, 1974, pp. 131-152.
- A. Rivet, C. Smith: The Place-names of Roman Britain. Batsford Ltd., London 1979, p. 442.
- SE Rigold: The Supposed See of Dunwich , J. Brit. Archaeol.Ass., XXIV, 1961, pp. 55-59.
- SE Rigold: Further Evidence About the Site of Dommoc , J. Brit. Archaeol. Ass., XXXVII, 1974, pp. 97-102.
- Stephen Johnson: The Roman forts of the Saxon Shore. London 1976.
- David J. Cathcart King: Castellarium anglicanum: an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II: Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands. 1983, p. 460.
- Matthias Springer: The Saxons. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-17-016588-5 .
Web links
- The Gatehouse: Walton Castle ( Memento from January 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Walton Castle, Felixstowe, possible site of St Felix's Minster of Dommoc (English)
- Walton entry on The Gatehouse ( January 31, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive )
Remarks
- ↑ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, XI, 12, 14 (ser. 2) London 1885, John Fairclough 2014, pp. 256-260.
- ↑ John Fairclough 2014, pp. 262, 270, Matthias Springer 2004, p. 33, William Page 1911, pp. 305–306, S. Rigold 1961, pp. 55–59, Stephen Johnson 1976, pp. 19, 40– 42, 67, 70, 98, 104, 121, 126, 154, 157.
- ↑ Society of Antiquaries, Minute Books, i. e. Letter dated November 28, 1722
- ↑ John Fairclough 2014, pp. 257-268.