Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman Saxon Shore fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a scheduled monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors. Built around 290 AD and known to the Romans as Anderitum, the fort appears to have been the base for a fleet called the Classis Anderidaensis. The reasons for its construction are unclear; long thought to have been part of a Roman defensive system to guard the British and Gallic coasts against Saxon pirates, it has more recently been suggested that Anderitum and the other Saxon Shore forts were built by a usurper in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent Rome from reimposing its control over Britain.
Aerial view of Pevensey Castle, showing the Norman keep and bailey at right within the Roman curtain wall; its main gate is at front
The Roman west curtain wall of Pevensey Castle
View from the inner bailey showing the west and north inner side of the Roman wall. The main west gate is at left.
Roman west gate of Pevensey Castle; the main land entrance
The Saxon Shore was a military command of the Late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the "Count of the Saxon Shore". In the late 4th century, his functions were limited to Britain, while the fortifications in Gaul were established as separate commands. Several well-preserved Saxon Shore forts survive in east and south-east England.
Burgh Castle in Norfolk, seen from the air.
Roman masonry, with its distinctive bands of Roman tiles, in the outer walls of the Saxon Shore fort of Anderitum, which was later re-fortified as Pevensey Castle in East Sussex.
The nine British Saxon Shore forts in the Notitia Dignitatum. Bodleian Library, Oxford.
