Excavations at the Roman fort in Richborough, the site of the first invasion of Britain, has finally resolved the mystery of how they landed. Now located two miles inland, the fort originally sat within a lagoon, so that the sea actually penetrated to Richborough. Looking at the wall, the archaeological team found a Roman foreshore and the signs of a harbour. The article notes that the harbour remained in existence till the fourteenth century, though it was probably rebuilt during Saxon times. This is contentious as it was assumed that the harbour silted up long before:
A recently uncovered Roman structure at Richborough , England, which
has been estimated to be a dock dating back to the 14th century, has
turned history on its head, by proving that at the height of medieval
Sandwich's power and wealth as a port, boats were still mooring at
Richborough.
According to a report in The Guardian, this discovery is unique because according to the conventional history of the site, Richborough had been completely filled with silt 800 years earlier, the once magnificent Roman fort and large town left abandoned and desolate.
The medieval dock was neatly constructed by joining up double-decker-bus-sized lumps of Roman walls which tumbled and slid down from the ramparts of the fort further up the slope.
It is built on the shingled Roman shore, one of the key sites in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, and can be securely dated to the 14th century, since the construction technique is identical to the medieval town walls of nearby Sandwich.
The little dock, still filling with water seeping from under the railway line, proves that at the height of medieval Sandwich’’s power and wealth as a port (the town is now as landlocked as the fort), boats were still mooring at Richborough.
This now leaves us with a question: if Richborough existed as a harbour in the Middle Ages and in Britannia, is there evidence of use during the so-called dark ages, a use that has been dismissed by the erroneous assumption that all fell into desuetude after 410: a view that is slowly but surely disappearing through detailed exploration of sub-Roman Britain. Perhaps that was why this place was called Richborough, wealthy in trade and history.