Walton Castle was a Saxon Shore Fort in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

. The fort was reused by the

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...

who used it as the bailey for a castle. It stood 30 metres above sea level but was destroyed by

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwa ...

in the 18th century. It was located in the village of

Walton, Suffolk Walton is a settlement and former civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the rivers Orwell and Deben. It is now part of Felixstowe parish. In 1911 the parish had a population of 4226. Hi ...

, now part of

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northea ...

().

Name

It is uncertain if Walton Castle is one of the Saxon Shore forts listed in the 5th century '' Notitia Dignitatum''. It has sometimes been identified with the ''Portus Adurni'' which appears in the list.A. Rivet, C. Smith, (1979–1982), ''The Place-names of Roman Britain,'', page 442. Batsford Ltd. London. In the modern era though it has become more common to identify ''Portus Adurni'' with the Saxon Shore Fort at Porchester.

History

Roman era

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 plan similar to

Burgh Castle Burgh Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the east bank of the River Waveney, some west of Great Yarmouth and within the Norfolk Broads National Park. The parish was part of Suffolk until ...

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 good evidence for a construction date contemporary with other Saxon Shore forts such as Burgh Castle and

Othona Othona or Othonae was the name of an ancient Roman fort of the Saxon Shore at the sea's edge near the modern village of Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex, England. The Old English name ''Ythanceaster'' for the locality derives from the Roman name. His ...

. In 1722 the remains were described as:''The Victoria history of the county of Suffolk, Volume 1''
page 37
Published 1907. In an account of 1754 the length of the west wall is given more accurately as 187 yards, and it is described as being "nine feet thick". Roman finds found in the vicinity of the fort suggest the existence of an extensive Roman settlement occupied over a long period. It was probably a

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

, 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 miles out to sea.

Viking / Saxon period

According to Bede, a place called

Dommoc ''Dommoc'' (or ''Domnoc''), a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of Suffolk, was the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the Kingdom of East Anglia. It was established by Sigeberht of East Anglia for S ...

often linked with

Dunwich Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was ...

on the Suffolk coast was the seat of East Anglia's first bishop,

Felix of Burgundy Felix of Burgundy, also known as Felix of Dunwich (died 8 March 647 or 648), was a saint and the first bishop of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom of East Anglia. Almost all that is k ...

, in the 7th century, from whom

takes its name. There is some evidence that Walton Castle was the location of Dommoc, where there appears to have been a church dedicated to St Felix inside the walls in the 12th century.

Medieval period

The fort was subsequently reused by the

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, Roger's son, but was confiscated and garrisoned by Henry II in the 12th century, following Hugh's involvement in the

Revolt of 1173–1174 The Revolt of 1173–1174 was a rebellion against King Henry II of England by three of his sons, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their rebel supporters. The revolt ended in failure after eighteen months; Henry's rebellious family members had ...

. In 1175-6 the castle was dismantled (

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...

) by Henry and . It was one of at least twenty cases belonging to the rebels to be slighted in the aftermath of the conflict. 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.

Erosion and loss to the sea

Although the fort was still standing in 1623, it is clear by the account of 1722 that by that date at least one wall had fallen over the eroding cliff. In Kirby's ''Suffolk Traveller'' (2nd edition, 1754) it is stated that around 1740 the west wall of the fort was still standing, but that by 1754 "the Sea hath washed away the remainder of the Foundation." When

Francis Grose Francis Grose (born before 11 June 1731 – 12 May 1791) was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He produced ''A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'' (1785) and ''A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Pr ...

published his ''The Antiquities of England and Wales'' in 1786, he included a picture drawn in 1766 which shows the slumped ruins of the wall lying on the beach below the cliff. He stated that it was "only visible at near low water". In the modern era, it is said that remnants of the walls can still be seen at some distance from the beach during exceptionally low tides at Felixstowe. The ruins of the fort are visible (May 2020) at very low spring tides when the tidal height is less than 0.2 metres. Spring tides occur on full or no moon.

References

External links

*
St Felix Minster, Walton Castle
The Suffolk Churches Site {{coord, 51, 58, 19.8, N, 1, 22, 48.1, E, display=title Archaeological sites in Suffolk Saxon Shore forts Castles in Suffolk Felixstowe