Caistor Roman Town (Venta Icenorum)
Casitor Town Walls
Summary
The massive stone wall at Caistor was built in the late AD 200s. It defended the centre of the Roman town, an area of 35 acres (14 hectares). This was only half the area of the original town. Even so, the scale of the work and the huge amount of materials required must have made it a very large and costly undertaking.
Further information
The threat to the town
For about 70 years before the building of the town wall, the south-east coast of England had been raided by barbarian tribes from across the North Sea. These attacks became serious enough to warrant the building of three Roman forts along the Norfolk coast, at Brancaster, Caister-on-Sea and Burgh Castle.
Venta Icenorum, on the banks of the River Tas would have been a prime target for any raiding party that got past the naval and land patrols of the coastal forts. It was this long-term threat to the safety of the town that made defences necessary.
Defence on a grand scale
The defences were built on a grand scale. The walls originally stood to a height of 7m (23 feet), about 1m (3 feet) taller than the remains that can be seen today. In some places the base the walls are 4m (14 feet) thick. A walkway protected by a parapet ran along the top of the wall.
A large ditch 24.4m (80 feet) wide by 5m 17 fee (5m) deep was dug around the outside of the walls on three sides. This joined with the river to form a ring around the town. The earth dug out from this ditch was probably used to build up the rampart (bank) behind the walls.
Only a few small areas of the original outer surface of the wall survive. The main facing materials were large dressed flints laid in courses between bands of red tiles.
Getting into the town
The only entrances into the town were through four heavily-guarded gateways. At regular intervals bastions (towers) were built out in front of the walls. These improved the view from the walkway along the length of the walls. There is one exposed bastion near the river. The remains of others are buried beneath the earth banks that have built up against the outside of the walls.
Because the wall was built through the town rather than around it, several buildings were demolished to make way for the new defences. The remain of these buildings and the existing ground surface were then levelled to form the foundation on which the wall was built.
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