A couple of days after our Dover Castle visit, we drove east along the north Kent coast, beyond Herne Bay, to Reculver Towers. Quite apart from the stunning remains, the site itself has a rich history. Just as the Pharos lighthouse at Dover (see previous post) highlights the Romans’ wish to keep a watch over the Channel, so the Reculver site was originally a substantial Roman fort. This became one of the earliest of the ‘Forts of the Saxon Shore,’ built to protect the southern shores of Britain against pirates and would-be invaders, mainly in the 3rd century CE. (See Emergence pp 93-4.) Centuries later, an Anglo-Saxon monastery was created there, which later became the local parish church, with the dramatic towers that catch the eye from all around added when the church was remodelled in the 12th century. Since then much of the Roman fort and other land has been lost to coastal erosion, as the photo shows.
The interest does not end there. The Roman fort once lay on the banks of the Wantsum, a wide seaway that ran all the way through to Richborough on the south-east shore of Kent. It was the Wantsum that also separated the original Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent – and Britain. Just east of the castle and church remains a useful information board shows the route, which can just be made out across the low-lying countryside beyond the old castle walls and ditches.