ROMANO-BRITISH SUFFOLK 



Bulls ClifF, at Felixstowe. Marshes at the foot of this high land, and the 

 traces of a waterway in the marshes, in fact, seem to point out the line or 

 which the united waters of the Stour and Orwell reached the sea in very 

 early times. Between the Deben and these other estuaries lay a broad flat 

 tract of land some miles in extent, a sort of peninsula. In the Roman period 

 this tract projected farther into the North Sea than it does now. On a site 

 on this land about a mile south of the mouth of the Deben, but possibly then 

 at some distance from the sea-shore, stood the fortress whose history, scanty 

 as it is, is still worth tracing. Of the walls not a fragment remains above 

 the waves, which undermined the last relics of them in the i8th century. 

 Now and again when the tide is at its lowest two or three weed-covered 

 masses may be seen, but that is all there is to show that a Roman station 

 once stood on the spot. Fortunately the memory of it has been preserved in 

 letters and drawings which show clearly enough the character of the buildings. 

 The place was known in the 17th century, and probably much earlier, by the 

 name of Walton Castle, no doubt from some traces remaining within the 

 inclosure of the Roman walls of a keep and other structures of the 12th 

 century, built by the rebel earl Hugh Bigod, whose castle here was 

 destroyed by the king (Henry II) after the suppression of the rebellion in 

 which the earl had been engaged." 



However this may be, it is not until the i8th century that it is possible to 

 speak with any certainty as to the remains called Walton Castle, and then the 

 descriptions show them to be clearly Roman. The first in date is the follow- 

 ing, which occurs in vol. i of the Minute Books of the Society of Antiquaries 

 under date 28 November 1722, in a letter from Dr. Knight. It runs thus: — 



Some distance East of this town (i.e. the neighbouring village of Walton) are the ruins 

 of a Roman Wall situate on the Ridge of a clifF next the Sea between Languard fFort and 

 Woodbridge River (the Deben) on Bawdsey haven. 'Tis 1 00 yards long, five foot above 

 ground 12 broad at each end and turned with an angle. Its composed of Pepple and Roman 

 bricks in three courses, all round footsteps of buildings, and several large pieces of Wall cast 

 down upon the Strand by the Seas undermining ye ClifF all which have Roman brick. At 

 low water mark very much of the like is visible at some distance in the Sea. There are 

 two entire Pillars with Balls, the ClifF is 100 foot high. 



The next notice that can be given is from Kirby's Suffolk Traveller (1735), 

 where it is stated under the head of Walton : — ' For the neighbouring Parish 

 of Felixstowe on the Colnes side of Woodbridge (Bardsey) haven, still appear 

 the ruins of a quadrangular castle, advantageously situated ' ; and further and 

 more fully in the second edition of his book, published in 1754, he says : 



He that would look for the Site of this Castle (i.e. of Walton) within the bounds of 

 Walton strictly taken will never find it ; but upon a high ClifF in Felixstowe, at the distance 

 of about one mile from the mouth of Woodbridge River (the Deben) and two miles from 

 Orwell Haven, Part of the Foundation of the West Side of it, is still to be seen : being 

 now One Hundred and Eighty-seven yards in Length, and nine feet thick ; it is called by 

 the Country People, Stone- Works. How much larger it was we cannot judge. Part of 

 the South end being washed away : and the Sea, which is daily gaining upon this coast 

 having swallowed up the ruins. Such was the condition of it about the year 1740 : but 

 since then the Sea hath washed away the remainder of the Foundation. There can be 

 no doubt but Walton Castle was a Roman Fortification as appears from the great Variety of 

 Roman Urns, Rings, Coins, etc., that have been found there, etc. 



" On the Pipe Roll of 22 Hen. II, an. 1 1 76, is the amount of the costs involved in its destruction. The 

 Norman additions to the Roman fortress would find a parallel in those made within the Roman walls of 

 Pevensey {Anderidd), another of the 'forts of the Saxon Shore.' 



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