| Summary : The remains of a Saxon Shore fort, Norman defences, enclosure castle, 16th century gun emplacement, and World War II defences. Pre-fort occupation was limited in the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, and the stone fort was built in circa 293-300 AD, with military occupation at least until the end of the 4th century. Occupation continued in some form until it was sacked in circa 470 AD by the Saxons. A hiatus of some 100 years appears to have followed, although by the mid 7th century occupation had been re-established within the walls. Covering almost 4ha, the fort survives in the form of substantial ruins and buried remains. It is enclosed by a massive defensive wall which was strengthened by irregularly-spaced, externally projecting semicircular bastions. The Middle and Late Saxon occupation includes a possible royal palace, hinted at by a number of luxury objects found on the site. By the mid 9th century it had become a small fishing port and a centre of salt production. William the Conquerer landed at Pevensey in 1066, and the Norman army are believed to have made use of the Roman fort as one of their first armed camps. After Pevensey was granted to William's half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain, the medieval defences went through 300 years of development and several sieges, culminating in the construction of a stone built enclosure castle within the largely intact walls of the Roman fort. In 1372 the castle was given to John of Gaunt, and was used to imprison James I, King of Scotland. By 1300 the sea had begun to recede from the castle and its military importance declined as a result. It became a Royal gaol but by 1500 the castle fell into disrepair. The threat of the Spanish Armada led to two demi-culverins, or heavy guns, being housed there in 1587. At the outbreak of World War II, after standing as a ruin and robbed for stone, the castle was refortified in May 1940 as an observation and command post. It is now in the care of English Heritage. |
More information : [TQ 6445 0480] ANDERIDA [G.S.] (Remains of)
[TQ 6433 0469] GATEWAY [G.S.]
[TQ 6436 0482] Postern Gate [T.I.] (Remains of)
[TQ 6433 0475] Roman Coins and Pottery found A.D. 1906-8 [T.I.]
[TQ 6457 0477] PEVENSEY CASTLE [G.T.] (Remains of)
[TQ 6455 0477] KEEP [G.T.]
[TQ 6450 0478] CHAPEL [G.T.] (Site of) FONT [G.T.]
[TQ 6447 0476] DRAWBRIDGE [G.T.] (Remains of)
[TQ 6451 0476] WELL [G.T.]
[TQ 6453 0474] SALLYPORT [G.T.]
[TQ 6442 0472] Gun [T.I.] (1)
Full account, plan and photographs (a).
Account of excavations 1906-7 (b).
Account of excavations 1907-8 (c).
Other references (d-g).
ANDERITA (h). (2)
ANDERITA (Roman Fort) and PEVENSEY CASTLE, as described by Auth. 2a. They are under the care of the Ministry of Works and in excellent condition.
A.M. Survey amended. (3)
According to a document in the Public Record Office (PRO Chancery Miscellanea (C47) 9/1) a chapel still existed in the 13th c close to Keep of Pevensey Castle apparently having parochial rights, and for this reason was considered sufficiently inconvenient for the Lord Peter of Savoy to apply for a licence for its removal to some other suitable site within the walls of the town. Today, the footings of an evidently early church or chapel are a prominent feature within the castle courtyard and, although lying slightly nearer to the W curtain wall than to the Keep they may none the less belong to the chapel of the PRO record. If this is so the terminus ad quem of the chapel would be about 1250. No part of the surviving wall footings is dateable architecturally but with walls less than 2' 6" in thickness and having notably massive quoinstones and with its long narrow nave and small nearly square chancel, it conforms to a pattern that would not be inconsistent with a pre-conquest origin. (4)
Anderida Roman fort and Pevensey Castle as described planned and illustrated in the DOE guide (a). There is some confusion about the name of the Roman fort. The DOE name plaque, the curator, documentary evidence shown to the investigator by the curator, and the 1952 official guide called it Anderida. Only the OS and the 1970 revised pamphlet call it Anderita. (5)
The name 'Anderita' or 'Anderida' :- 'Anderida' is the traditional name, but Jackson discusses the orthography in detail and concludes (a) ... "a Celtic 'Anderida' is meaningless, whereas to the eye of the Celticist the correct form is obviously Roman-British 'Anderitum' or rather its plural 'Anderita', 'The Great Fords'," and (b) "It is to be hoped that the unwarranted 'Anderida' will be dropped in future, and 'Anderita' substituted." Name 'ANDERITVM' accepted for 4th.edition R.B.Map. (6)
I Pevensey Castle
Scheduled Ancient Monument given to the then Office of Works by the Duke of Devonshire in 1925. The outer walls comprise the Roman fort of Anderida built at the end of the third century. They enclose an irregular oval of nearly 10 acres and are built of sandstone rubble with coursed facings of stone cut in imitation of bricks with bonding courses of brick. They are about 12 feet thick and nearly 25 feet high and survive nearly complete except on the south side. Within and at the south-east corner of these walls Robert de Mortmain, brother of William the Conqueror, built a Castle enclosed by a ditch on the north and west sides. Either he or his successor, Richer de Aquila. built a masonry Keep in the extreme south-east corner at the end of the C11 or beginning of the C12. The ground floor of this survives, and is of stone rubble and flints faced with ashlar. The Gatehouse on the west side with its twin bastions dates from 1220 circa. The curtain walls or inner bailey connecting this with the Roman walls, including 3 half-round towers, were added in middle of the C13, probably by Peter of Savoy, uncle of Henry III's Queen, Eleanor of Provence. (7)
ANDERITUM - The Roman fort at Pevensey. (8)
Pevensey Castle: a Saxon Shore fort, Norman defences, a Medieval enclosure castle and later associated remains. Scheduled. (9)
Wills Gazetteer gives NGR as TQ 646 048. (15)
Listed by Colvin with its history. (16)
Combes and Lyne argue that Pevensey is a far more likely location for the burh of Hastingaceaster than is Hastings. They use both historical evidence and evidence from recent excavations on the castle site of continuous occupation in the Saxon period.
Three place names in early documentary sources, the burh of Haestingaceaster, Haestingaport where Duke William constructed a castle before the Battle of Hastings, and the town of Hastings, have been asumed to be synonymous. There is however no tangible evidence for any significant pre-Conquest settlement at Hastings.
Archaeological evidence from Pevensey shows there to have been almost continual occupation from the mid-late Saxon period within the Roman walls, while topographical evidence suggests that Hastings was an unlikely place for an Alfredian burh. It is therefore suggested that Pevensey was the site of a the burh of Haestingaceaster, that Hastings was a mid or late 11th century foundation, and that Haestingaport could refer to either location. (17)
Excavations in 1993-5 discovered a sequence of rebuilding the east wall of the keep of Pevensey Castle during the Middle Ages. Alongside the excavations, fabric surveys were carried out of the Roman walls, the keep and the medieval walls of the inner bailey. Certain results of the keep survey and excavation were included in the 1999 English Heritage guidebook; however, only a preliminary report on the gatehouse was produced from the survey of the medieval walls, and the paper provides a revised summary of that work, with some observations on the subsequent structural development of the castle through the thirteenth century. There are documentary and architectural contexts for the construction of the lower storeys of the gatehouse during the reign of Richard I. (18)
A full report on the excavations at the castle is given in a publication of the works between 1936-64. Pre-fort occupation was limited in the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, and the stone fort was built in circa 293-300 AD, with military occupation at least until the end of the 4th century. Occupation continued in some form until it was sacked in circa 470 AD by the Saxons. A hiatus of some 100 years appears to have followed, although by the mid 7th century occupation had been re-established within the walls. The Middle and Late Saxon occupation includes a possible royal palace, hinted at by a number of luxury objects found on the site. By the mid 9th century it had become a small fishing port and a centre of salt production. After Pevensey was granted to William's half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain, the medieval defences went through 300 years of development and several sieges. It became a Royal gaol but by 1500 the castle fell into disrepair. (19)
A programme of archaeological, architectural and aerial survey and investigation was carried out in 2018 by the Historic Places Investigation team of Historic England. (20)
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