Caister Roman Fort, Great Yarmouth, was part of a chain of forts that were built to act as defence mechanisms to Saxon seaborne invaders, and was occupied by the Roman army and navy. It was built around AD 200 as a military base unit, but archaeological objects such as beads, brooches, bracelets and hairpins have been found (as well as spearheads, arrowheads and masculine buckles) suggesting that women and children lived alongside the soldiers, as families. The fort occupied a small island on the north side of the estuary of the rivers Yare, Waveney, Bure and Ant. These were important routes into East Anglia, where people lived in settlements, and are now mostly dry and have become modern Great Yarmouth.
Part of the fort and its defences were discovered during archaeological digs between 1951 and 1955. It is not a large, or deep, fort and the remaining foundations are only about 18 inches high at best. I have been known to describe it as “bas-relief” and that's very naughty as it was very significant find and it's perhaps not quite that shallow!
Come and take a walk in my shoes and I'll tell you more about this Roman fort. Then we'll wander through Caister Cemetery, where the nine lifeboatmen killed during a rescue mission, known as the Beauchamp disaster of 1901, are buried, then on to Caister Lifeboat, who operate as an independent concern. Finally, we'll take a look at the Caister lions- two stone animals which guard a gap in the concrete sea wall.
As you know, I will always be a writer before anything else, and my Caister Roman Fort blog can be viewed here:-
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