In 45 A.D The Roman's under
their Emperor Claudius (Of I Claudius fame) invaded
Britain. By 100 A.D. the Celts (Britons) were conquered.
In 128 A.D. the Roman's completed building Hadrian's wall in
the north to contain barbarian Picts and Scots.
In the second half of the
third century A.D. barbarian sea-borne pirates, began raiding
the cross-channel trade and the coasts of Northern Gaul and
S.E. Britain. The topography of this coastline is greatly
changed since Roman times 1,700 years ago.
By about 270 A.D. The Classis
Britannica (The Ramano-British Fleet) could no longer
contain these pirate hordes. To curb and contain them the Roman's
established a chain of nine fortified naval bases, linked by
watchtowers and signal stations, extending from the Isle of Wight
to the Wash. Each base was protected by a massive stone fortress
and was tactically sited to guard a vulnerable estuary or a natural
harbour such as Pevensey against piratical incursions.
These nine fortified naval
bases were known as "The Roman forts of the Saxson shore",
and Anderita (Pevensey) was one of them. Eight
of the forts were constructed in the traditional Roman rectangular
style between 275 and 290 A.D. The ninth and mightiest "Fort
Anderita", was built C. 330 A.D. to complete the chain
between Dorchester and Lympne, it's oval shape conformed to the
contours of the narrow peninsula on which it was sighted. As
the map shows, this peninsula formed a large natural harbour
and anchorage for shipping on its northern face.
At the Norman Conquest Pevensey
was granted to William the Conqueror's half-brother Robert, Count
of Mortain, who founded a small borough outside the Roman fort
and made a castle within it by dividing off a part, probably
the whole eastern third of it, by a PALISADED bank and ditch
and repairing the Roman walls in this part. At the same time,
or a little later, the Great Tower, or KEEP, was built in its
primitive form.