BURGH CASTLE

ALTERNATIVE NAME:

GARIANNONUM ROMAN FORT, GARIANNUM

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The ruined walls of Burgh Castle are all that remains of the Roman fort built on the site between the late 3rd and 4th century AD. The fort is trapezoidal in plan with rounded angles, and has maximum internal dimensions of around 205 by 100 metres. The walls on the north and east sides and along much of the south side are largely intact, standing to a height of around 4.6 metres and measuring up to 3 metres thick at the base. They have a core of mortared flint rubble and an external and internal facing of knapped flint and tile or brick in alternating bands. Against the outer face of the walls there are six solid bastions of pear-shaped plan spaced symmetrically, two on the south wall, one each at the north east and south east angles, one slipped from position on the north wall, and one below the south wall where it has fallen. Some or all of the west wall had collapsed before the Norman castle was constructed within the fort and nothing of it is now visible.

Between the mid seventh and ninth centuries the site was occupied by what is thought to have been a monastic settlement and in the 11th and 12th centuries a Norman motte and bailey castle existed on the site. In 1770 the mound of the castle, known as the motte, was partly removed and in 1839 it was completely levelled. The ditch was infilled in the same year and now survives only as a buried feature. On top of the motte stood a timber tower, identified through archaeological excavations, and the bailey, or courtyard, of the castle was located to the north and east of the motte.

The site is owned by Norfolk Archaeological Trust and the Roman walls are under the guardianship of English Heritage.

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(Centred TG 475046) Burgh Castle (NAT) GARIANNONVM ROMAN FORT (R) (1)

Burgh Castle, a Saxon Shore fort stands on the summit of ground sloping steeply towards the estuary of the River Waveney, and from coin and pottery evidence appears to date from the mid-C3rd. Roman occupation continued up to the early C5th when the intergration of Roman and Saxon traditions appears. (2-8)

A monastic settlement was established here by Fursa, circa 630, and later the site became a Norman motte-and-bailey. The Saxon Shore fort is roughly quadrangular with massive walls and bastions but is now only bounded on three sides; the western side having completely disappeared due to landslip. The fort is referred to in `Notitia Dignitatum' as `Gariannonum' in association with the Stablesian cavalry who were stationed here in the C4th. Excavations in 1850 and 1855 and 1958-61 revealed some of the interior buildings and structures (see plan 1). Finds of early C5th Romano-Saxon pottery and a glass hoard within the fort, and a possible cemetery outside (see TG 40 SE 21) suggest integrated settlement on the site or within the immediate vicinity. Burgh Castle has long been identified with `Chobheresburgh', where Fursa set up a Hibernian - type community in the early or mid 630s. Excavations by C. Green in 1960-1 (see plans 2 and 3) revealed the site of a monastic church, apparently of timber, in the south-west corner of the fort, with an intramural Christian cemetery to the north of it, producing at least 144 interments as well as pits containing re-interred bones. 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 C8th and possibly C9th. A motte, utilising the Roman fort as a bailey formerly stood in the south-west corner. Part of the mound was removed about 1770 and it was completely destroyed in 1839. No surviving archaeological or historical evidence regarding the motte is known. (9)

The remains of Burgh Castle shore fort are in excellent condition and are preserved by the DOE. The interior and immediate surrounds have been under plough and there are no surface indications of either Roman buildings or the Dark Age establishment.
Published survey (25") revised. (10)

GARIANNUM. Roman fort of Burgh Castle (shown as `GARIANNONVM' on Roman Britain Map 4th Ed. 1978). (11)

The final report on excavations at Burgh Castle by Charles Green has now been produced by Stephen Johnson. No evidence was found for occupation of the site earlier than the late Roman period. The identification of the fort as the Roman Gariannonum is thought to be correct. The Christian cemetery within the walls produced radio-carbon dates of the C7th to C10th. A detailed discussion follows on the traditional identification of the fort with Cnobheresburg and thus the site of Fursa's monastery. On archaeological grounds the oval buildings in the NE portion of the site are Middle Saxon or later, and the cemetery and scatter of Ipswich Ware over the site suggest activity from the C7th to the C9th or C10th. Johnson concludes though that none of the arguments for or against Burgh Castle as Cnobheresburg is conclusive. After this Middle Saxon episode the site was left unoccupied until the construction of the motte and bailey castle. From the little pottery of this period which survives the Medieval occupation appears to have been short-lived. (12)

Additional reference. (13)

Burgh Castle Roman fort, vicus, pre-Conquest monastery and Norman motte and bailey castle: Scheduled.

The ruined walls of Burgh Castle are all that remains of the Roman fort built on the site between the late 3rd and 4th century AD. The fort is trapezoidal in plan with rounded angles, and has maximum internal dimensions of around 205 by 100 metres. The walls on the north and east sides and along much of the south side are largely intact, standing to a height of around 4.6 metres and measuring up to 3 metres thick at the base. They have a core of mortared flint rubble and an external and internal facing of knapped flint and tile or brick in alternating bands. Against the outer face of the walls there are six solid bastions of pear-shaped plan spaced symmetrically, two on the south wall, one each at the north east and south east angles, one slipped from position on the north wall, and one below the south wall where it has fallen. Some or all of the west wall had collapsed before the Norman castle was constructed within the fort and nothing of it is now visible.

Burgh Castle has been identified as the probable site of a pre-Conquest monastery founded in the seventh century AD. The location of Burgh Castle fort corresponds to that in the description by Bede of the 'castle' within which the Irish St Fursey founded a monastery in AD 633, on land given by King Sighebert of the East Angles, and the excavations within the area of the fort discovered evidence, including pottery, which confirms that it was occupied during a period between the mid seventh and the ninth centuries AD. In the south western part of the fort an inhumation cemetery was found, radiocarbon dated to between the sixth and the tenth centuries, and traces of a large timber building with a clay floor immediately to the south of the cemetery were identified as possibly the remains of part of a church. Evidence for occupation of a similar date in the in the north east corner included traces of several irregularly oval timber structures with maximum dimensions of between 5 metres and 8 metres, as well as finds of middle Saxon pottery.

A late 11th century or early 12th century motte and bailey castle was constructed within the surviving walls of the Roman-Saxon shore fort known as Burgh Castle. The Norman motte occupied the south west quadrant of the fort, where it was visible at one time as a large earthen mound encircled by a ditch. The mound was partly removed circa 1770 and completely levelled in 1839, and the ditch was infilled, although it survives as a buried feature and has been recorded as a crop mark enclosing an oval area measuring circa 72 metres north-south by 53 metres east-west. A section excavated across the ditch on the east side established that it is circa 4 metres deep and that the lowest levels of fill are waterlogged. On the south east side a breach circa 18 metres wide in the south curtain wall marks where the ditch cuts through, and traces of the southern edge of the mound above the scarp of the inner edge of the ditch remain visible against the outer side of the wall to the west of the breach. Approximately a quarter of the area formerly covered by the mound was also excavated and found to contain several large, clay-filled pits, identified as foundations for part of a timber sub-structure to support the tower, also of timber, which stood on top of the mound. The remainder of the fort, to the north and east of the motte, was adapted for use as the bailey of the castle. A north-south bank, remains of which were observed in the excavations at the north west corner, is thought to have been constructed at this time to block the gap on the western side of the fort left by the collapse of the north end of the original Roman wall on that side. The broken western end of the north wall was reinforced by a large earthen mound heaped against its outer face up to 6m high above the falling ground level to the north. Post-Conquest occupation of the fort is confirmed by finds of 11th/12th century pottery. (14)

Gariannonum Roman Fort (Burgh Castle) Probably built c.AD 260-80 and evacuated c.AD 407-8. Subsequently used as a Saxon settlement. The late 11th century Norman motte and bailey was removed in 1839. The fort walls are of coursed flint facing a concrete rubble core. At every 5-6 courses of flints are 3 courses of brick, giving a striated appearance to the walls. The corners and at the centre of the shorter sides (north and south) are bulbous drum bastions which were probably added in the 4th century AD. Grade 1. (15)

Additional reference. (16)

In an attempt to make the consecutive occupation of the site more clear the information for the pre-Conquest monastery and the Norman motte and bailey castle have now been afforded separate records. For the Norman castle see TG 40 SE 43 (uid 1397355) and for the monastery see TG 40 SE 44 (uid 1397357). (17)

In reference to the comments made at source 17, I have now combined all records so that this is the sole record for the Roman fort, Pre-conquest monastery and Norman castle. As they have all existed on the same site it seems unnecessary for there to be more than one record. (18)

The site is listed in the English Heritage Visitor Handbook 2009/10. (19)

SOURCE TEXT

(19) 2009 English Heritage Visitor Handbook 2009/10

Page(s)136

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

1:10000 1978

( 2) Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History

A J Morris 24, 1948 Page(s)100-120

(3) Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society Norfolk archaeology : a journal of archaeology and local history

H Harrod 5, 1859 Page(s)146-60

(4) Society for Promotion of Roman Studies The journal of Roman studies

51, 1961 Page(s)183

(5) Society for Promotion of Roman Studies The journal of Roman studies

52, 1962 Page(s)178

(6) edited by D B Harden 1956 Dark-Age Britain : studies presented to E T Leeds with a bibliography of his works

Page(s)22, 34, 37, 82

(7) by Stephen Johnson 1976 The Roman forts of the Saxon Shore

Page(s)37-40

(8) edited by David M Wilson 1976 The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England

Page(s)84, 203-4, 212-15, 301, 412

(9) edited by D E Johnston 1977 The Saxon Shore

CBA research reportsVol.1 (1955)- no.18 Page(s)1, 3, 25, 29, 63, 72

(10) Field Investigators Comments

F1 FDC 13-JAN-72

(11) by A L F Rivet and Colin Smith 1979 The place-names of Roman Britain

Page(s)366

(12) by Stephen Johnson 1983 Burgh Castle : excavations by Charles Green 1958-61

East Anglian archaeology reportsvol 1 (1975) - no.20

(13) Tom Williamson 1993 The origins of Norfolk

The origins of the shire Page(s)143-154

(14) Scheduled Monument Notification

26-APR-1995

(15) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Great Yarmouth, 15-JUL-1988 Page(s)10

(16) by David Knowles and R Neville Hadcock 1971 Medieval religious houses in England and Wales

Page(s)469

(17) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

(18) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

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MONUMENT NO. 133772
BURGH CASTLE

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Remains of the vicus associated with the Roman-Saxon shore fort of Gariannonum are located in fields to the north east and south east of the fort and ...

MONUMENT NO. 133791
BURGH CASTLE

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The field immediately adjacent the east of the Roman-Saxon shore fort known as Gariannonum has been identified as the site of a Roman military cemeter...

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