The Roman fort at Richborough, Kent, was one of the principal entry points to Roman Britain, a major civil centre and a commercial harbour of considerable importance. The Richborough Environs Project combined aerial survey, geophysical survey and excavations to improve the interpretation, management and presentation of the site.
The survey area covered an area of 15 square kms centred on the Richborough Roman fort. Richborough (or Rutupiae as it was named by the Romans) is located on a former island on the eastern coast of Kent, on the south-eastern end of the now silted Wantsum Channel which divided the Isle of Thanet from the mainland. Three phases of the fort are visible – the Claudian Ditches (post invasion beach head of 43AD), the inner early fort and the outer later walled Saxon shore fort dating from 275AD.
The Fort and Roman settlement at Richborough
The extensive remains of the settlement have been detected both through aerial survey of the entire site, and geophysical survey and excavation. The fort was excavated first in the 1920s by Bushe-Fox coinciding with the first aerial photographs of the site. However, it is the most recent photographs of the site taken during aerial reconnaissance by English Heritage in July 2001 which proved to be the most informative, revealing previously unrecorded features within the settlement as cropmarks. Traces of the settlement were seen extending to the west, south-west and north-west of the fort. A network of roads and rectilinear enclosures interpreted as the robbed-out foundations of buildings could clearly be seen as cropmarks in the fields adjacent to the fort.
The aerial survey revealed a high concentration of archaeological features, mostly attributed to the Roman settlement or vicus, located in the immediate vicinity of the fort earthwork. Visible are the course of the road (pale curving line) and traces of robbed out building foundations. All these features have been plough levelled and are only visible as faint cropmarks. The remains of the amphitheatre are visible to the south-west of the fort (excavated by Rolfe in 1849).
The development of the Roman settlement at Richborough
The settlement appears to have two distinct areas lying on totally different alignments, linked by a curving stretch of metalled roadway. This is the one feature which has been consistently visible as a cropmark throughout several decades of aerial reconnaissance, possibly due to repeated re-metalling over time creating a considerable depth of compacted material. It is possible that the two areas of the settlement represent the Roman settlement adjacent to the fort and the contemporary (and possibly earlier) native settlement. This could explain why there are two separate nuclei of settlement where there is no obvious reason, topographic or other for this change in alignment.
The images used on this page are copyright English Heritage unless specified otherwise. For further details of any photographs or other images and for copies of these, or the plans and reports related to the project please contact the English Heritage Archive.
For further information on a project or any other aspect of the work of the Aerial Survey team please contact us via email using the link above.
