Roman Times

In 55 BC Julius Caesar left Boulogne for Britain as, he said,
‘it would be a great advantage to have visited the island, to have seen what kind of people the inhabitants were, and to have learned something about the country with its harbours and landing places.’ He arrived at Dover, but faced with antagonistic tribesman, he sailed on and landed further north with the help of his friend and ally Commenius. Bad weather and the onset of winter forced him to return to Gaul, but he had more ships built and returned in the summer of 54 BC.

The probable result of these two visits was agreement between some tribes and Rome and these arrangements led to increased trade. Caesar records that there was IRON production in the maritime region of Britain – based on Wealden iron ore, timber for charcoal and clay for the kilns being available. There was a great impetus given to iron production during the years that followed these visits, before the Roman Invasion.

Indeed, it has been suggested that the existence of this iron industry, and the wish to own and control it, was one of the main reasons for this Roman Invasion.
In 43 AD, the Romans began to bring the country complete1y under Roman control, when the Emperor Claudius sent an army which landed at Richborough. The invasion army is described as being in three sections and it has been interpreted that these were divided between Richborough, Dover and Port Lemanis (facing what is now Romney Marsh). After the passage of the Legions further North and West, this region, the land of the Cantiaci, with its capital at Canterbury, became a core area for Roman control of Britain.

The Wealden ironmaking areas were ‘nationalised’ by the Romans very soon after the invasion. According to the latest research, they made it an imperial estate, controlled by Classis Britannica (the Roman Fleet), for over 250 years. There is much evidence of Roman ironworks in many local villages - Brede-Broad Oak, Icklesham, Beckley, Peasmarsh etc. At Beauport Park, outside Hastings, part of a Roman bath-house built as a part of an iron-making complex, has been discovered and excavated, although the settlement which must have accompanied it, has not yet been found.

The products from these works were sent along several Roman roads, built on the ridges, which linked the works. (Part of one of these was excavated at Icklesham some years ago.) The iron was then exported from the ports on the Rother and Brede rivers and estuaries. A very important Roman port throughout the Roman period was called Portus Lemanis – now near Lympne – Stuttfall Castle.

The forts of the Saxon Shore, were a series of fortified harbours or garrisons which the Romans either developed from older ports or as entirely new foundations, in order to give protection from the ‘SAXON’ group of tribes which were making regular piratical raids on the south of Britain. A list of 428 AD gives the names of 10 of them, and the system had been in place at least 100 years by then, under the command of the ‘Count of the Saxon Shore’. Professor Fuentes believes that ‘Riduna,’ half way between Portus Lemanis (Port Lymme) and Anderida (Pevensey), was Rye, and has some textual evidence for this.
Rome appears to have accepted that Britain was no longer part of the Roman Empire after c.410 AD.