Pevensey Castle: 1,700 Years of English History

Anderitum: the Roman fortress

The story begins around AD 290, when the Romans built a great fort here on what was then a peninsula jutting into the sea and marshes. They called it Anderitum, and it was the largest of the so-called “Saxon Shore” forts — a chain of strongholds guarding the coast of Roman Britain. Its colossal walls, more than 500 metres around and studded with projecting bastions, still stand almost to their full height today, which makes them some of the most impressive Roman remains in Britain.

Exactly why it was built is still debated: the traditional view is that it defended the coast against Saxon and Frankish pirates, but it may equally have been raised by Carausius, the rebel commander who declared himself emperor of Britain in the 280s — his coins have been found buried in the walls. After the Romans left, the fort sheltered a British community until, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a Saxon force stormed it in the late 5th century and killed everyone inside.

1066: where England changed

Pevensey’s most famous moment came on 28 September 1066. It was here, in Pevensey Bay, that William, Duke of Normandy, landed his invasion fleet to seize the English crown. His army sheltered for the night inside the old Roman walls, throwing up a hasty fortification — effectively the first castle William built in England — before marching east to Hastings and the battle that would change the country forever. You can still stand within the very walls that gave the Norman invaders their first foothold.

Did you know? The scene on the Bayeux Tapestry showing the Normans building a castle after they landed is widely thought to depict what happened right here at Pevensey, inside the ready-made Roman fortress.

A mighty medieval castle

After his victory, William granted Pevensey to his half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain, who began turning the Roman ruin into a true medieval castle. The great Roman wall became the castle’s outer bailey, while a new inner castle — eventually rebuilt in stone in the 13th century with a twin-towered gatehouse, a keep and a deep well — rose within it. The result was a formidable fortress that withstood no fewer than four sieges over the centuries; medieval stone cannonballs, hurled by siege engines, have been dug from its ditches.

One siege has become the stuff of legend. In 1399, with the castle’s keeper away, his wife Lady Joan Pelham held Pevensey against a hostile force, writing to her husband that she was “laid in manner of a siege” and could get neither out nor supplies in — one of the earliest known letters in English written by a woman. The castle also served as a royal prison, holding captives including the young King James I of Scotland.

Decline and the Armada

Pevensey’s power faded along with its harbour. Over the centuries the sea gradually retreated and the marshes silted up, leaving the once-coastal fortress stranded inland — where it still sits today, looking out over the Pevensey Levels. The castle slid into ruin, though it had one last flicker of military life in Elizabethan times, when a gun platform was installed inside the walls during the panic over the Spanish Armada in the 1580s.

War again in 1940

Astonishingly, the ancient stronghold was called up for duty one final time. In 1940, with Britain braced for a German invasion, Pevensey Castle was refortified — and machine-gun posts and pillboxes were cleverly built into the Roman and medieval walls, faced with local stone so they were almost invisible. Troops from Britain, Canada and the United States were stationed here. When the war ended, it was decided to leave these concrete posts in place, so that the castle now tells an unbroken story of the defence of Britain from Roman times right through to the 20th century.

Visiting Pevensey Castle

Pevensey Castle is in the care of English Heritage and open to visitors, a short and easy trip from Eastbourne. You can walk the mighty Roman walls, explore the medieval gatehouse, keep and dungeon, spot the disguised 1940 gun posts, and see a recreated wartime commander’s office, while younger visitors can crack the castle code trail. It pairs perfectly with a wider day exploring 1066 Country or the nearby Herstmonceux Castle.

Good to know: Opening times, admission prices and facilities can change from season to season, so it’s always worth checking the latest details with English Heritage before you set off.

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