1.
Norfolk
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Norfolk /ˈnɔːrfək/ is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the west and north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. With an area of 2,074 square miles and a population of 859,400, of the countys population, 40% live in four major built up areas, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, the area is not a National Park although it is marketed as such. It has similar status to a park, and is protected by the Broads Authority. Norfolk was settled in times, with camps along the higher land in the west. A Brythonic tribe, the Iceni, inhabited the county from the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD, the Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second opened the county to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the county, situated on the east coast, Norfolk was vulnerable to invasions from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and forts were built to defend against the Angles and Saxons. Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, the influence of the Early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in -ton and -ham. Endings such as -by and -thorpe are also common, indicating Danish place names, in the 9th century the region came under attack. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have high, by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture, the economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian, the economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry except in Norwich which was an addition to the railway network. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation, during the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Norfolks low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to the sea, the low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
Burgh Castle Roman Site
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This fort was possibly known as Gariannonum, although the single record that describes it as such may also mean the Roman site at Caister-on-Sea. Between the mid-7th and 9th centuries the site was occupied by a monastic settlement. In Roman times, possibly known as Gariannonum, name that appears in a source, the Notitia Dignitatum. The identification was once thought secure, but is now thought doubtful by specialists, Burgh, is derived from the same Old English language word burh. The Old English word was used for a fortified town or proto-castle, as in Burgh Castle. The fort is rectangular measuring approximately 205 m by 100 m. The walls on the north, east, and much of the side are largely intact, standing at a height of approximately 4.6 m. They have a core of mortared flint rubble and an external and internal facing of prepared flint and red tile or brick in alternating bands. The west wall has at time in the distant past collapsed down the underlying hillside and into what was once an estuary but is now a marsh. Breydon Water is all that is left of the estuary this fort once overlooked, historians find many arguments against this location, but are unable to agree on a better one. A cluster of oval huts towards the north-east angle of the fort may be interpreted as cells or workshops, coins and Ipswich ware carry the occupation well into the 8th and possibly 9th century. However a detailed report by Stephen Johnson of Norfolk Museums Service in 1983 concluded that there was no evidence for any monastic settlement in Burgh Castle itself. In the 11th and 12th centuries a motte was constructed in the south-west corner, the motte was partly removed in around 1770, in 1839 it was completely levelled. The ditch was in-filled in the same year, Archaeological excavations identified a timber tower on the motte, with the bailey, of the castle located to the northeast of the motte. The fort lies close to the church of Burgh Castle St Peter and St Paul. In the 17th century, Sir Henry Spelman recorded a tradition that the fort had been occupied by Jews, and reported the name of a track leading away from it as Jews Way. This is likely to reflect a sense of the site having been the home of an ancient but enigmatic people. The site is located to the west of the village and civil parish of Burgh Castle and it is located on the eastern bank of the southernmost part of Breydon Water, formed at the mouths of the Rivers Ant, Bure, Yare, and Waveney
4.
Caister Roman Site
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Caister Roman Site is a Roman Saxon Shore fort, located in Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk. It was constructed around AD200 for a unit of the Roman army and navy and this fort was possibly known as Gariannonum, although the single record that describes it as such may also mean the Roman site at Burgh Castle. The fort was originally 3.5 ha in size and roughly square in shape, with large stone perimeter walls 4 to 5 m high, earth ramparts and ditches of 175 m in length on all four sides. In around AD260 a fort at Burgh Castle was constructed on the side of the estuary. The remainder of the site, approximately 3.15 ha now lies under modern housing. On the southern side is a wall which could be part of a portico. The second room from the west contains an example of a Hypocaust heated floor, on the north side of the building is a corridor running along the southern and south eastern sides of a rectangular courtyard beyond. It is likely that the building was in use during the third and fourth centuries AD and likely to have served various domestic. There is evidence that the building was damaged by fire in the later fourth century. Within the courtyard area are parts of other possibly earlier buildings, which include for various structures and the remains of a corn-drying kiln and a water tank. Following the Roman occupation, the site remained unoccupied until the Middle and Late Saxon periods, to the south of the fort a large Saxon cemetery has been excavated. Today the remains of the fort are opened free of charge to the public by English Heritage, the site is located on the western edge of the town of Caister-on-Sea, in the county of Norfolk. At the time of its construction, the site of the fort would have been on the side of an estuary, at the mouths of the Rivers Ant, Bure, Yare. Today however, the extension of the Yarmouth sandbank has meant that this shore fort now lies some distance inland. The Roman Shore Fort site of Burgh Castle lies a few miles to the southwest
5.
Walton Castle, Suffolk
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Walton Castle was a Saxon Shore Fort in the Roman province of Britannia. The fort was reused by the Normans who used it as the bailey for a castle and it stood 30 metres above sea level but was destroyed by coastal erosion in the 18th century. It was located in the village of Walton, Suffolk, now part of Felixstowe and it is uncertain if Walton Castle is one of the Saxon Shore forts listed in the 5th century Notitia Dignitatum. It has sometimes identified with the Portus Adurni which appears in the list. In the modern era though it has more common to identify Portus Adurni with the Saxon Shore Fort at Porchester. Walton Castle was a Saxon Shore type fort, probably built in the late 3rd century, much of our knowledge of the fort derives from an outline drawing and plan of 1623, as well as some 18th-century literary accounts. The 1623 drawings show a similar to Burgh Castle to the north. Forward projecting curvilinear towers are present at the corners of the fort, the walls have flint facing with brick bonding courses. The presence of forward-projecting towers with rounded corners is thought to be evidence for a construction date contemporary with other Saxon Shore forts such as Burgh Castle. In 1722 the remains were described as, Tis 100 yards long, five foot above ground,12 broad at each end, at low water mark very much of the like is visible some distance in the Sea. There are two pillars with Balls, the Cliff is 100 foot high. In an account of 1754 the length of the west wall is more accurately as 187 yards. Roman finds found in the vicinity of the fort suggest the existence of an extensive Roman settlement occupied over a long period and it was probably a vicus, and a port There may have been a second fort on a promontory around six miles south of Walton Castle. The location, on West Rocks, is now about three out to sea. According to Bede, a place called Dommoc was the seat of East Anglias first bishop, Felix of Burgundy, in the 7th century. There is some evidence that Walton Castle was the location of Dommoc, the fort was subsequently reused by the Normans who used it as the bailey for a castle built there by one of the Bigod earls, probably Roger Bigod who died in 1107. The castle was strengthened by Hugh Bigod, Rogers son, but was confiscated and garrisoned by Henry II in the 12th century, in 1175-6 the castle was dismantled by Henry and used in the construction of Orford Castle. The walls of the Roman fort survived this demolition, and the plan of 1623 shows ruins in the northeast corner which presumably were the remains of the castle
6.
Richborough Castle
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Richborough Castle contains the ruins of a Roman Saxon Shore fort, collectively known as Richborough Fort or Richborough Roman Fort. It situated in Richborough near Sandwich, Kent, in the United Kingdom, Rutupiae or Portus Ritupis was founded by the Romans after their invasion of Britain in AD43. Because of its position near the mouth of the Stour, Rutupiae was the major British port under the Romans, additional routes connected Durovernum with further ports at Dubris, Lemanis, and Regulbium. Earth fortifications were first dug on the site in the 1st century, probably was as a storage depot and this transformed into a civilian and commercial town, which was later replaced by a Saxon Shore fort around the year 277. The later fort is believed to have constructed by the rebel Carausius. The site is now under the care of English Heritage and it has commonly been accepted that Richborough Castle was the landing site for the Claudian invasion. This is because of the existence of mid-1st century ditches and fortifications on the site and these ditches and fortifications are assumed to have been built to protect their bridgehead and supply depot. However, explicit details on the site of the Claudian invasion have not survived, as the fighting moved north, Rutupiae became an increasingly large civilian settlement. There were temples, an amphitheatre, and a mansio, as a port, the town always competed with Portus Dubris, about 15 mi south along the coast. However, Richborough was widely regarded throughout the Roman Empire for the quality of its oysters and they are mentioned as on a par with those from the Italian Lucrine Lake in Juvenal. Rutupine shore was used as a common metonymy for Britain in Latin writers, a major quadrifrons triumphal arch was erected straddling Watling Street, the main road from Richborough to London. Its position and size suggest it may have built to celebrate the final conquest of Britain after Agricola’s victory at Mons Graupius. Almost 25 m high, it had a facade of high quality, standing as it did between the port and the province, passage through the arch signified formal entry into Britannia. Only its foundations and mound are still visible, during the late 3rd century this civilian town was remilitarized by its conversion into a Saxon Shore Fort. The Saxon Shore Forts were a series of forts built by the Romans along the Channel on the English, construction of the fort here is believed to have started in 277 and completed in 285. This involved the demolition and reuse as spolia of the triumphal arch, the fort was 5 acres in area and was surrounded by massive walls, forming an almost perfect square. However, the north and south walls were constructed differently, the north wall was built by separate gangs of laborers, while the south wall seems to have been built as a single unit. This suggests that the wall of the fort was built sometime after the construction of the south wall
7.
Dubris
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Dubris, also known as Portus Dubris and Dubrae, was a port in Roman Britain on the site of present-day Dover, Kent, England. As the closest point to continental Europe and the site of the estuary of the Dour, the Dour is now covered over for much of its course through the town. In the Roman era, it grew into an important military, mercantile and cross-channel harbour and it was fortified and garrisoned initially by the Classis Britannica, and later by troops based in a Saxon Shore Fort. For this reason, its harbor was in Gesoriacum, not Dover. However, it did have other, smaller bases in Britannia itself, at Rutupiae, two lighthouses, each called the Pharos, were built soon after the conquest. Proposals of their range from 50,80 or c. 138, though the consensus is for a 1st-century AD date. They were sited on the two heights and modelled on the one built for Caligulas aborted invasion at Boulogne and this Roman Pharos has been a Grade I-listed building since 1974. At its peak, Dubris was a trading centre, taking over from Rutupiae as the main Roman cross-Channel port. With Rutupiae, it was one of the points for Watling Street. During the construction of the new A256/York Street bypass in the 1970s Roman remains were discovered, the archaeologists discovered a Roman mansio now known as the Roman Painted House. The mansio, a hostel for government officials, was built in c and it was discovered in 1970 by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit and, as it houses some of the finest example of Roman murals in Britain, it has been called Britains Buried Pompeii. Above a lower dado, of red or green, a scheme of multi-coloured panels framed by fluted columns is still visible. The columns sit on projecting bases above a stage, producing a clear 3-D effect, parts of 28 panels survive, each with a motif relating to Bacchus, the Roman God of wine. This Bacchic link, and the proximity to the baths. However, this is circumstantial evidence and so most academics believe the rooms are too small to have supported this line of work. Dubriss mansio was demolished in 270 for the construction of a Saxon Shore Fort and this demolition preserved the mansio and its wall-paintings better than usual, since the foots of the walls were contained in the forts rampart. A small amount of the remains is now visible, on request, at Dover Library and Discovery Centre
8.
Saxons
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The Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes first mentioned as living near the North Sea coast of what is now Germany, in the late Roman empire. They were soon mentioned as raiding and settling in many North Sea areas, as well as pushing south inland towards the Franks. Significant numbers settled in parts of Great Britain in the early Middle Ages. Many Saxons however remained in Germania, where they resisted the expanding Frankish Empire through the leadership of the semi-legendary Saxon hero, the Saxons earliest area of settlement is believed to have been Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein. This general area also included the probable homeland of the Angles, Saxons, along with the Angles and other continental Germanic tribes, participated in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century. The British-Celtic inhabitants of the isles tended to refer to all of these collectively as Saxons. It is unknown how many Saxons migrated from the Continent to Britain, the Saxons may have derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known. The seax has a symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon. The Elizabethan era play Edmund Ironside suggests the Saxon name derives from the Latin saxa, Their names discover what their natures are, More hard than stones, in the Celtic languages, the words designating English nationality derive from the Latin word Saxones. The most prominent example, a loanword in English, is the Scottish Gaelic Sassenach and it derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, originally, Saxon, from the Latin Saxones. Scots- or Scottish English-speakers in the 21st century usually use it as a term for an English person. The Oxford English Dictionary gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English. Sasanach, the Irish word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh to describe the English people, Cornish terms the English Sawsnek, from the same derivation. In the 16th century Cornish-speakers used the phrase Meea navidna cowza sawzneck to feign ignorance of the English language, England in Scottish Gaelic is Sasainn. Other examples include the Welsh Saesneg, Irish Sasana, Breton saoz, and Cornish Sowson, Sowsnek, the label Saxons was also applied to German settlers who migrated during the 13th century to southeastern Transylvania. From Transylvania, some Saxons migrated to neighbouring Moldavia, as the name of the town, Sas-cut, sascut is located in the part of Moldavia that is today part of Romania. The Finns and Estonians have changed their usage of the term Saxony over the centuries to denote now the country of Germany
9.
English Heritage
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English Heritage is a registered charity that manages the National Heritage Collection. This comprises over 400 of Englands historic buildings, monuments and sites spanning more than 5,000 years of history, within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrians Wall. English Heritage also manages the London Blue Plaques scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings and it was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a long period of state involvement in heritage protection. The British government gave the new charity an £80 million grant to establish it as an independent trust. Over the centuries, what is now called Heritage has been the responsibility of a series of state departments. There was the Kings Works after the Norman Conquest, the Office of Works, the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues and Works, and the Ministry of Works. Responsibility subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Public Building and Works then to the Department of the Environment and now the Department for Culture, Media, the states legal responsibility for the historic environment goes back to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. Central government subsequently developed several systems of protection for different types of assets, introducing listing for buildings after WW2. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission was formed under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 on 1 April 1984, soon after, the commission gained the operating name of English Heritage by its first Chairman, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. A national register of parks and gardens, was set up in 1984. Registration is a consideration in the planning process. In 2010–2011 it recorded 4.3 million unique online user sessions, in 2012 the section responsible for archive collections was renamed the English Heritage Archive. As a result of the National Heritage Act 2002, English Heritage acquired administrative responsibility for historic wrecks, the administration of the listed building system was transferred from DCMS to English Heritage in 2006. It was retained on grounds of performing a function which should remain independent from Government. However the department also suffered from budget cuts during the recession of the 2010s resulting in a deficit of £100 million. In June 2013 the British Government announced plans to provide an £80 million grant to enable English Heritage to become a self-financing charity, the national portfolio of historic properties remain in public ownership, but the new English Heritage will be licensed to manage them. The change occurred on 1 April 2015 with the planning and heritage protection functions remaining an independent, non-departmental public body. The new trust has a licence to operate the properties until 2023, English Heritage is the guardian of over 400 sites and monuments, the most famous of which include Stonehenge, Iron Bridge and Dover Castle
10.
Notitia Dignitatum
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The Notitia Dignitatum is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Eastern and Western Empires. It is unique as one of few surviving documents of Roman government and describes several thousand offices from the imperial court to provincial governments, diplomatic missions. It is usually considered to be accurate for the Western Roman Empire in the AD 420s, however, the text does not date its own authorship or accuracy, and omissions complicate ascertaining its date from its content. There are several extant 15th- and 16th-century copies of the document, the heraldry in illuminated manuscript copies of the Notitia is thought to copy or imitate only that illustrated in the lost Codex Spirensis. The iteration of 1542 made for Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, was revised with illustrations more faithful to the originals added at a later date, the most important copy of the Codex is that made for Pietro Donato in 1436 and illuminated by Peronet Lamy. The Notitia presents four primary problems as regards the study of the Empires military, therefore, its development from the structure of the Principate is largely conjectural because of the lack of other evidence. It was compiled at two different times, the section for the Eastern Empire apparently dates from circa AD395 and that for the Western Empire from circa AD420. Further, each section is not a contemporaneous snapshot. The Eastern section may contain data from as early as AD379, the Western section contains data from as early as circa AD400, for example, it shows units deployed in Britannia, which must date from before 410, when the Empire lost government of the island. In consequence, there is substantial duplication, with the unit often listed under different commands. It is impossible to ascertain whether these were detachments of the unit in different places simultaneously. Also, it is likely that some units were merely nominal or minimally staffed, the Notitia has many sections missing and lacunae within sections. This is doubtless due to accumulated textual losses and copying errors, because it was copied over the centuries. The Notitia cannot therefore provide a comprehensive list of all units that existed, the Notitia does not record the number of personnel. Given that and the paucity of evidence of unit sizes at that time, the size of individual units. In turn, this makes it impossible to assess accurately the total size of the army, for example, the forces deployed in Britain circa AD400 may have been merely 18,000 against circa 55,000 in the AD 2nd century. The Notitia contains symbols similar to the diagram which later came to be known as yin, the emblem of the Thebaei, another Western Roman infantry regiment, featured a pattern of concentric circles comparable to its static version. The Roman patterns predate the earliest Taoist versions by almost seven hundred years, laeti Tabula Peutingeriana List of Late Roman provinces Notitia Dignitatum, edited by Robert Ireland, in British Archaeological Reports, International Series 63.2
Burgh Castle shown within Norfolk