The Lost Wantsum Channel: Its Importance to Richborough Castle

( 91 ) THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL ITS IMPORTANCE TO RICHBOROUGH CASTLE By GEO. P. WALKER. THE interesting excavations carried out by the Society of Antiquaries at Richborough Castle have increasingly tended to demonstrate the peculiar importance of that place to the Romans. The whole island was apparently built upon, and included Palaces, Temples, Baths, Mint and Amphitheatre. It had even two main roads radiating from it, one, the Watling Street (the first road the Romans ever built in this country) going through Canterbury on its way to London, and the other to Dover and Lympne. They crossed over the tidal waters from the Castle by means of a causeway, the remains of which can stiU be seen near Fleet Farm. The harbour was in the north-west of the island, where one of their docks, as viewed to-day, confirms the importance which this naval base had for the Romans ; and if further evidence were needed, the fact that the total finds in coins up to date now exceeds the enormous number of 150,000 would in itself be sufficient. Now what was there about this site that gave it such importance as this, an importance so great that the Castle became the focus of the maritime traffic and the chief port from which the agricultural and mineral products of the country were exported ? The explanation is undoubtedly to be found in the fact of its having been built on an island situated in a land-locked harbour of the now dried-up Wantsum Channel. But even with this circumstance as a guide it is difficult for the visitor of to-day to visuaHse it, as aU that remains to be seen is an isolated, weatherbeaten old Castle on the top 92 THE LOST WANTSUM- CHANNEL. of a hill, far from the sea and entirely surrounded by marshes. But these very marshes were once the bed of an inland sea, known to the Romans as the " Portus Rutupis," and by the Saxons the " Wantsum Channel," whose waters gave the necessary faciHty for bringing Richborough Castle up to that high state of importance to which it attained during the occupation of this country by the Romans (see Map). Though known for centuries by name only, historically the Wantsum Channel was one of the most interesting Straits in Great Britain, for over its waters came men who not only contributed to change the race, but also the very rehgion of the people. To the many who visit Margate and Ramsgate in the summer the term " Isle of Thanet " has no more significance than that of a postal address, or that the name is derived from a small stream separating it from Kent. But in reaHty the term in the past had a real significance, for the water that divided Thanet from Kent was, in places, some miles wide, and a regular shipping trade was not only carried on between London and the different ports of its shores,, but also a channel service was run between it and the Continent. It had two entrances, one on the North Kent Coast (see map) caUed the Northmouth, where stands the Roman fortress Regulbium now called " The Reculver." It was built on the edge of a cliff, where, from its position, it completely dominated the estuary. A road which is stiU in existence connected it up with Canterbury (see map 2). The other entrance was in PegweU Bay. But from its youth onwards the effect of the double entrances was bound eventuaUy to prove fatal to its existence, for they reduced the energy of the tides, both flood and ebb, as a scouring medium against silt; also there was always the damage being done by the drainage from its four rivers. This silting process must have continued for centuries tiU at last a time arrived in which nothing was left but the barren marshes that we see to-day. From the Reculver its direction was due South until THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. 93 it reached the viUage of Sarre on the Thanet side and Chislet on the main land (see map). Here it was about a mile wide. From this point it turned off in an easterly direction for the remainder of its course, widening to seven miles between the cliffs of Ramsgate and Deal. Two arms stretched out, one going in the direction of Bridge, the little Stour, and the other, the great Stour, to Canterbury (see map). About a mile and a half from the PegweU Bay entrance stood an island now caUed Richborough (see map); it was here the Roman General, Aulus Pautius, landed with 50,000 troops on his invasion of Britain in A.D. 43. He was guided, no doubt, to this spot by information gathered from records left by JuHus Ca3sar, who was here about ninety years before (B.C. 54). It was a well-chosen spot, as it lay inside the Channel, close to the Kent shore, and stood high above the surrounding sea. It was protected from the ocean by a natural breakwater called the Stonar Beach (see map) which, with its root at Ebbsfleet, continued southwards for about two and a half miles, finishing close to where Sandwich stands to-day ; although in Roman times the latter place had not come into existence. It was round the southern end of this breakwater that the eastern entrance to the Channel was situated (see map). On it was built the town of Stonar, which was finally destroyed by the French in 1385. Its site is easily picked out from the Ramsgate road. Stonar came into prominence during the late Roman period. It replaced Richborough as a port after the latter had become silted up. Why the town ever became so important as it did is a mystery, but that such was the case is weU authenticated by a number of ancient writers ; for, having been built on the Stonar Beach, it was in Thanet, and consequently cut off from Kent by the Wantsum Channel, so that goods and passengers coming from the Continent would have to make use of the Ferry to reach the Mainland.- There can be Httle doubt it was at Stonar that St. Augustine landed in A.D. 597, afterwards waiting at Ebbsfleet, which is at the Northern end, for King Ethelbert's permission to proceed to Canterbury 94 THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. to start his mission. The spot where the King met him is near by, and has been commemorated by a stone cross erected by the late Lord GranviUe. Ebbsfleet is also famous as the landing place of Hengest and his Saxon foUowers in A.D. 449, who were destined to change the entire history of this country for six hundred years, their end being brought about by WilHam the Norman at the battle of Hastings in 1066. I t is a far cry from Roman times to the present, but it is weU to try to bridge the centuries that have passed, and to wander over the ground, picking up the threads of this old story where possible. From the N. waU of Richborough Castle the valley of the Wantsum is seen as far as Pegwell Bay on the right, and to the viUage of Sarre on the left, the low range of hiUs in the middle distance representing the southern shore of the Isle of Thanet, with Minster Church lying at its feet (see map). On the rising ground in Thanet above Minster a very fine view can be had of the Channel. The outlook is now south and the old Kent shore is quite discernible with Richborough Castle on the high ground ; to the left is Sandwich, with the sea in the extreme distance, while through the marshes flows the Stour river threading its way into Pegwell Bay (see map). Standing on the cliff at the Reculver, and looking east towards Margate, the double wall that closed up what was called the Northmouth of the Channel can be seen. It begins at our feet and reaches away towards Birchington. The Thames is on one side, while on the other is the valley of the Wantsum (see map). But perhaps the best view of all can be had from Hilborough Church, which is about one mile south-west from the Reculver and is situated on the Kent side. On a clear day the valley of the Wantsum can be seen for miles in either direction, as the Church, standing on the very edge of the high ground, commands a view of the whole landscape. Everywhere in the foreground are the marshes, and to the THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. 95 left the Reculver, still keeping watch and guard on the coast. In the middle distance is the rising ground of the Isle of Thanet, with St. Nicholas' Church on the slope, while to the left are the few houses that comprise the village of Bartletts. On the extreme right is an avenue of trees reaching from •Kent into Thanet. They mark t he line of the main Canterbury- Margate road, which crosses the marshes on what is caUed Sarre Wall. Here the Channel was at its narrowest; and here the historic Sarre Ferry, mentioned by the Venerable Bede, carried its passengers to and from the island. As the visitor approaches Sarre, coming from Canterbury, it will be noticed that this road strikes the viUage at right angles and, until a house was puued down recently, had to make a sharp detour to get round it. This curious twist in the road brings back to memory the time when Sarre was a port with a harbour and a sea front, whose houses would face the beach ; the approach road, now crossing over the Sarre wall, taking the place of the Ferry. " To the right the white curves of Ramsgate Chffs looking down on the crescent of PegweU Bay ; far away to the left across the gray marsh levels, where the smoke wreaths mark the sites of Richborough and Sandwich, the coast line bends dimly to the fresh rise of the chffs beyond Deal. Everything in the character of the ground confirms the national tradition which fixed here the first landing place of our English fathers ; for, great as the physical changes of the country have been since the fifth century, they have told little on its main features. It is easy to discover, m the misty level of the present Minster marsh, what was once a broad inlet of the sea, parting Thanet from the mainland, through which the pirate boats of the first Englishmen came sailing with a fair wind to the little gravel spit of Ebbsfleet; and Richborough, a fortress whose broken ramparts stiU rise above the gray flats which have taken the place of the older sea channel, was the common landing place of traveUers from Gaul."1 1 Green's History of the English People. 96 THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD. Not much can be said of the Channel in pre-historic days, but a glance at the accompanying map (see map 1), will give some idea of its extent and ramifications, thanks to the courtesy of the Geological Institute, from whose map the sketch was made. Of the PegweU Bay entrance, Mr. John Lewis, a wellknown antiquary of the eighteenth century, says : " That the estuary, in which was included the harbour of Richborough, known to the Romans as ' Portus Rutupis,' had extended from the Chffs of Ramsgate southward to Walmer (a distance of eight miles), and indeed the whole of the low ground between Sandwich and Deal, washing the shore of an Island on which stands Richborough Castle." From this eight mile stretch of open sea (the Stonar Beach not then having been formed) the Channel rapidly contracted in its westerly course to a width of about one and a haH mile opposite Sarre on the Thanet coast and Chislet in Kent. At this point the direction was changed to that of North, when the width again expanded to about four miles at Reculver. The two arms at this period reached, in one instance, as far as Chartham, passing on its way part of the site where Canterbury now stands, while the other travelled in a more southerly direction to Bridge. The Victoria County History of Kent says : " One of the most interesting facts connected with the marine animals in the neighbourhood of Sandwich is the evidence furnished by the Mollusca of the great changes known to have occurred. It is found in its living state only some way below Sandwich, but dead shells in good preservation, in the position they had when living, are found in the mud of the Great Stour near Stourmouth, where they no doubt Hved when there was an open Channel round by Reculver." The position, where the dead shells are found, is about half way into the estuary, and is proof of the free access of sea water through the Channel. Mubapouglv. MortkboTh OdsUtQ K E IST T mm, o WANTSUM CHANNEL Pre - historic Warm, W f o CQ CO 3 Q 3 ~5 98 THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. By comparing the Geological map (map 1) with a modern one of the same scale, a reason wiU at once be found for the position of many of the vfllages in this district. ViUages such as Worth, Monkton, Fordwich, St. Nicholas and Hale, which, to the casual observer, seem never to have had any connection with the sea, wnT be found to have been built on what was once a creek or arm of the Channel. Another fact worth noting is the irregularity of the Deal coast, compared with its present straight line, and also the manner in which it receded in a westerly direction; the whole distance from Deal to Stourmouth being a mass of Httle bays and creeks, with the Island of Richborough standing clear of the coast in a most conspicuous manner. It would appear, therefore, that the fuU extent of the Wantsum Channel was at one time from the Ramsgate cliffs to Walmer, on the east coast, and from P«eculver to Birchington on the north, with two arms at about its centre, running southwest and south. Though we have no records until the arrival of the Romans, it may fairly be assumed that the early inhabitants would make use of a sheet of water Hke this for trade and fishing ; and might not the Phoenicians, in their periodical visits to this island, have safled over its surface and even penetrated as far as Canterbury % The following extracts have been written as an index to the extent of the channel, which, though it had as a basis the rivers Stour and Wantsum, would have made a very valuable adjunct to the waterways of our island, had it existed to-day. " There can be httle doubt that the Rutupine coast was the scene of many important events, which, unrecorded by the pen of history, must be presumed to have occurred." (Roach-Smith.) " AU the viUages above the level of the marshes, to the westward of lower Deal, about Sandwich and in Thanet, are continuaUy furnishing British, Roman and Saxon money." (Boys' History of Sandwich.) " Even to-day, though the ground has been so much raised by repeated depositions of mud, the whole of the Marsh land THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. 99 between Deal and Thanet would be overflowed by every extraordinary spring tide, were it not for the natural barrier raised by the surge of the sea against itself, and the artificial banks thrown up along the haven of Sandwich." (Boys' History of Sandwich.) " In digging near to the river Stour at Chartham at a depth of 16 feet were found the bones of a Hippopotamus, which helps to prove the existence of the sea reaching up to Chartham through the vaUey of the Stour." (Somner.) ROMAN PERIOD A.D. 43-400. The Wantsum Channel as it was during Roman times (see map 2) must next be considered. The two raids made by JuHus Csesar in 55 and 54 B.C. are hardly apphcable here, though upon his second visit a few of his ships may have just entered one of the creeks at the S.E. corner of the Channel, near where the village of Worth1 now stands ; but what does concern us is the period following the invasion under the Roman General Aulus Plautius, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, A.D. 43. Glancing at map 2 it will be observed that there is one outstanding alteration in the Channel from the pre-historic times (see map 1), an alteration so great, that without it, the coming of the Romans would, at least to this corner of England, have been impossible. The difference referred to is, of course, that during the interval ofcjtime the Stonar beach has been formed. Mr. George Dowker says :— " It (the Stonar Beach) shews evidence that it had traveUed from north to south or from the Thanet cliffs towards Sandwich ; that it was the result of marine currents which flowed at the time it was formed, in exactly opposite direction to the sea currents at the present time, and which for many ages past have driven the Walmer beach from south to north. This change of currents was probably due to the widening of the EngHsh Channel between Dover and Calais, so that to go back to the time when the Stonar beach was formed, we must date back to the pre-historic period. Now aU the historic evidences we have met with point to the same conclusion, viz., that the Stonar beach and its connection 1 Worth well deserves the attention of archaeologists. It stands on an elevated peninsula at the southern entrance to the Channel, overlooking a sheltered bay, and must have been a tempting spot for an early human settlement. 100 THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. with the Isle of Thanet date back previous to the Roman occupation of Britain." This neck of land, with its base at Ebbsfleet, is about three and a half miles long, composed of beach material, and had been formed by the action of the sea. It takes the form of a breakwater or mole, rendering the eastern entrance, what it had never been before, a safe haven or harbour during aU weathers (see map 2). Mr. Geo. E. Fox, in his history of Richborough Castle, says : " It (Richborough) was not washed by the open sea, though a broad channel may have flowed close beside it, forming one of the southern mouths of the strait, whUe a narrow strip of salt marsh and sand bank lay between it and the open sea." Mr. R. Holmes, in his book, The Landing Place of Julius Ccesar, writes : " The island (Richborough) on its eastern side was separated by a channel from the Stonar Beach, the southern extremity of which lay east by north of the site of Sandwich." This latter place at the time of the Roman landing was not in existence, and we do not hear of it for another six hundred years later ; but it is doubtful whether, at this period, even the sandbank upon which it was afterwards founded, had risen above the sea. The main entrance, therefore, would be round the southern end of the Stonar Beach, inside of which a safe anchorage could at once be found. The other alteration noticeable is on the most northerly of the two arms, which originaUy stretched as far as Chartham. It had now receded so much that Canterbury was left dry with the exception of the river Stour, divided, into two branches, running through it. This is conclusively proved, as we find that the Romans, in buflding their great road from Dover to London, carried it over the Stour in passing through Canterbury. It entered the city by the Riding gate and can be traced there to-day under the names of WatHng Street and. Beer Cart Lane, which runs to the west, and parallel to, St. Peter Street. From this period, therefore, Canterbury can no longer be said to have had direct. m OSmcholccs m FordMicJv WANTSUM CHANNEL •3 W tef t-i O co H3 $ H CO Cj Q 3 f1 102 THE LOST WANTSUM CHANNEL. access to the Wantsum Channel, and it had to make use of Fordwich, a village about two miles to the N.E., as its Port. Whether the shrinking of this arm was nature's work, or whether the Romans themselves dammed the water back to faciHtate the making of the road, cannot, after the lapse of so many years, be certain, but the evidence of the Watling Street is too clear to be ignored, and the assumption is, that if the sea during this period reached Canterbury, it did not pass through it as in pre-historic days. This, then, was the appearance of the Wantsum Channel during the Roman period, so far as can be gathered. It is in no way hypothetical, but a picture drawn from, evidence that any student may gather for himself, either from written records, traditions, or the clear indications found in the district. Wnham Boys, the historian of Sandwich, says : " The extensive tract of marsh land lying between Thanet and Walmer, and extending from the shore to Canterbury, was formerly the bed of the Portus Rutupinus, and was in aU probability covered by the sea at the time the Romans were in this country. A strong presumptive proof of this is that no remains whatever of that people occur anywhere throughout this flat district; whereas we meet with coins and other Roman matter the moment we ascend the rising borders of the marsh." SAXON PERIOD 450 TO 1100 A.D. We have now arrived at a date which can be designated " The Saxon Period," that is between the sixth century and the coming of the Normans in the eleventh century A.D. The Romans had gone, and a new race of people had taken over the reins of government, and great alterations had, in the meantime, taken place in the physical formation of the Wantsum Channel, so that a fresh survey of it will not be out of place. Map 3 shows at once, especiaUy at the east or Deal coast entrance, what these alterations were. During the Roman period the entrance had been from the southern end of the Stonar Beach to Deal. The wind, M $> Eulbproiio. OSWeholas CfdsletO