Toponymy

The earliest recorded form of the name, Regulbium, is in Latin and dates from the early 5th century or before, but it had its origin in a Common Brittonic word meaning "at the promontory" or "great headland". In Old English this became corrupted to Raculf, sometimes given as Raculfceastre, giving rise to the modern "Reculver".^{[4][Fn 1]} The form "Raculfceastre" includes the Old English place-name element "ceaster", which frequently relates to "a [Roman] city or walled town".^[6]

Prehistoric and Roman

Map of Kent early in the 5th century, showing how Reculver (marked here as "Reculbium") was then at the north-eastern corner of mainland Kent, with the Wantsum Channel between it and the Isle of Thanet: Gardiner, S.R., A School Atlas Of English History, 1892

Stone Age flint tools have been washed out from the cliffs to the west of Reculver,^[7] and a Mesolithic tranchet axe was found near the centre of the Roman fort in 1960.^[8] This was probably an accidental loss, rather than suggesting a human settlement, evidence for which begins with late Bronze Age and Iron Age ditches.^[8] These indicate an extensive settlement,^[9] where a Bronze Age palstave and Iron Age gold coins have been found.^[10] This was followed by a "fortlet" built by the Romans during their conquest of Britain, which began in 43 AD,^[11] and the existence of a Roman road leading to Canterbury, about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) to the south-west, indicates a Roman presence at Reculver from then onwards.^[12] A full-size fort, or castrum, was started late in the 2nd century. This date is derived in part from a reconstruction of a uniquely detailed plaque, fragments of which were found by archaeologists in the 1960s.^[13] The plaque effectively records the establishment of the fort, since it commemorates the construction of two of its principal features, the basilica and the sacellum, or shrine, both being parts of the headquarters building, or principia:

this [was] the first time the inscribed phrase aedes principiorum [could] be ... identified with the official shrine of [a Roman military] headquarters building, hitherto unmentioned in any inscription ... [It was] also the first certain ... application of the name basilica to [this element of the building].

— Ian Richmond, The Antiquaries Journal, 1961^[14]

These structures were found by archaeologists, together with probable officers' quarters, barracks and a bath house.^{[15][Fn 2]} A Roman oven found 200 feet (61 m) south-east of the fort was probably used for drying food such as corn and fish; its main chamber measured about 16 feet (4.9 m) by 15 feet (4.8 m) overall.^[16]

Reconstruction of the plaque recording the establishment of the fort^[17]

The fort was located on a low hill, beyond which a long promontory then projected north-eastwards into the sea and formed the north-eastern extremity of mainland Kent: thus it offered observation on all sides, including both the Thames Estuary and the sea lane later known as the Wantsum Channel, which lay between it and the Isle of Thanet.^{[18][Fn 3]} It was probably built by soldiers of the Cohors I Baetasiorum, originally from Lower Germany, who had previously served at the Roman fort of Alauna at Maryport in Cumbria at least until the early 180s, since tiles recovered from the fort are stamped "CIB".^[19] The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman administrative document from the early 5th century, also records the presence of the Cohors I Baetasiorum at Reculver, then known as Regulbium.^[20] There must also have been a harbour nearby in Roman times,^[21] and, though this has not yet been found, it was probably near to the fort's southern or eastern side.^{[22][Fn 4]}

The walls of the fort originally stood about 14.8 feet (4.5 m) high and were 10 feet (3 m) thick at their base, reducing to 8 feet (2.4 m) at the top; they were reinforced internally by an earthen bank.^[24] The entrance to the fort's headquarters building faced north, indicating that the main gate was on the north side, facing the eponymous promontory and the sea.^[25] The north wall has been lost to the sea, along with the adjoining part of the east wall and most of the west wall; the east wall is most complete and includes the remains of the eastern gateway and guard post.^[26] Parts of the surviving walls are all that remains of the fort above ground, and all have suffered from stone-robbing, especially near the south-western corner.^{[27][Fn 5]} The walls were originally faced with ragstone, but very little of this remains: otherwise only the cores of the walls are visible, consisting mostly of flint and concrete and standing only 8.6 feet (2.6 m) high at their highest.^[29]

Part of the south wall of Regulbium, seen from its south-eastern corner

Roman forts were normally accompanied by a civilian settlement, or vicus: at Reculver this lay outside the north and west sides of the fort, much of it in areas now lost to the sea, and was extensive, perhaps covering "some ten hectares [25 acres] in all."^[30] In 1936 R.F. Jessup noted that "a Roman building with a hypocaust and tesselated [floor once] stood considerably to the northward of the fort":^[31] this structure had been observed by the 17th- to 18th-century antiquarian John Battely,^[32] and was probably "an external bath house ... relating to [an early phase of] the fort."^[33] In the same area Battely described "several cisterns" between 10 and 12 feet (3–3.7 m) square, lined with oak planks and sealed at the bottom with puddled clay. He believed that these were for storing rainwater, and noted that a Roman strigil, which would have been used in a bath house, had been found in a similar cistern at Reculver; he also observed that "such a multitude [of cisterns] has been discovered, almost in our memory, as proves that the ancient inhabitants of the place were very numerous."^[34] In the 20th century twelve wells of the Roman period were identified to the west of the fort, ten of which were square; all were cut into the hard layer of sandstone below the soft sandstone of the Thanet Beds, thus tapping into the water table.^{[35][Fn 6]} These and other 20th-century finds from the Roman period extend to 1,120 feet (341.4 m) west of the fort, and date to a period between 170 and 360, roughly coinciding with the period of occupation at the fort itself.^[33]

At least 10 infant burials have been found within the fort, all of babies, of which six were associated with Roman buildings: five sets of infant remains were found within the foundations and walls of buildings, as were coins dating from 270 to 300 AD.^[36] It was suspected that more such burials might be found in the walls of a building in the south-western area of the fort if it were excavated further.^{[37][Fn 7]} A baby's feeding bottle was also found in an excavated floor within 10 feet (3 m) of one of the infant skeletons, though it may have been unconnected with the burials.^[38] The babies were probably buried in the buildings as ritual sacrifices, but it is unknown whether they were selected for burial because they were already dead, perhaps stillborn, or if they were buried alive or killed for the purpose.^{[39][Fn 8]} A local tale subsequently developed that the grounds of the fort were haunted by the sound of a crying baby.^[41]

Towards the end of the 3rd century a Roman naval commander named Carausius, who later declared himself emperor in Britain, was given the task of clearing pirates from the sea between Britain and the European mainland.^[42] In so doing he established a new chain of command, the British part of which was later to pass under the control of a Count of the Saxon Shore. The Notitia Dignitatum shows that the fort at Reculver became part of this arrangement, and its location meant that it lay at the "main point of contact in the system [of Saxon Shore forts]".^[43] Archaeological evidence indicates that it was abandoned in the 370s.^[20]

Medieval

Part of the south wall of the 7th-century church, incorporating Roman tiles

By the 7th century Reculver was part of a landed estate of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent, possibly with a royal toll-station or a "significant coastal trading settlement,"^[44] given the types and large quantity of coins found there.^{[44][Fn 9]} Other early Anglo-Saxon finds include a fragment of a gilt bronze brooch, or fibula, which was originally circular and set with coloured stones or glass, a claw beaker and pottery.^{[45][Fn 10]} Antiquarians such as the 18th-century clergyman John Duncombe believed that King Æthelberht of Kent moved his royal court there from Canterbury in about 597, and built a palace on the site of the Roman ruins.^[47] However, archaeological excavation has shown no evidence of this; Æthelberht's household would have been peripatetic, and the story has been described as probably a "pious legend".^{[48][Fn 11]} A church was built on the site of the Roman fort in about 669, when King Ecgberht of Kent granted land for the foundation of a monastery, which was dedicated to St Mary.^[51]

The monastery developed as the centre of a "large estate, a manor and a parish",^[52] and, by the early 9th century, it had become "extremely wealthy",^[53] but it then fell under the control of the archbishops of Canterbury. In 811 Archbishop Wulfred is recorded as having deprived the monastery of some of its land,^[54] and soon after it featured in a "monumental showdown"^[55] between Wulfred and King Coenwulf of Mercia over the control of monasteries.^[56] In 838 control of all monasteries under Canterbury's authority was passed to the kings of Wessex, by the agreement of Archbishop Ceolnoth in exchange for protection from Viking attacks.^[57] By the 10th century the monastery at Reculver and its estate were both royal property: they were given back to the archbishops of Canterbury in 949 by King Eadred of England, at which time the estate included Hoath and Herne, and land at Chilmington, about 23.5 miles (37.8 km) to the south-west, and in the west of the Isle of Thanet.^[58]

By 1066 the monastery had become a parish church.^[58] However, in 1086 Reculver was named in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a hundred, and the manor was valued at £42.7s. (£42.35).^{[59][Fn 12]} Included in the Domesday account for the manor, as well as the church, farmland, a mill, salt pans and a fishery, are 90 villeins and 25 bordars: these numbers can be multiplied four or five times to account for dependents, as they only represent "adult male heads of households".^{[61][Fn 13]} At that time, although Domesday Book records that Reculver belonged to the archbishop of Canterbury in both 1066 and 1086, in reality it must again have been lost to him, since William the Conqueror is recorded as having returned it, among other churches and properties, to the archbishop at his death.^{[64][Fn 14]} In the 13th century Reculver was a parish of "exceptional wealth",^[66] and the considerable enlargement of the church building during the Middle Ages indicates that the settlement had become a "thriving township",^[52] with "dozens of houses".^{[67][Fn 15]} In 1310 Archbishop Robert Winchelsey of Canterbury noted that the population of the whole parish in the time of his predecessor John Peckham (c. 1230–1292) had numbered more than 3,000.^{[70][Fn 16]} For this reason, and because the parish was also large geographically, he converted chapelries at Herne and, on the Isle of Thanet, St Nicholas-at-Wade and Shuart into parishes, though the church at Hoath remained a perpetual curacy belonging to Reculver parish until 1960.^[71] Records for the poll tax of 1377 show that there were then 364 individuals of 14 years and above, not including "honest beggars", in the reduced parish of Reculver, who paid a total of £6.1s.4d. (£6.07) towards the tax.^{[72][Fn 17]}

Decline and loss to the sea

Estate map of Reculver, 1685:^[76] the church, the "chapel-house", the Roman fort and the former town of Reculver, described as "Village-lyke" in 1540^[77]

The thriving medieval township depended partly on its position on a maritime trade route through the Wantsum Channel, already present in Anglo-Saxon times and exemplified by Reculver's membership of the Cinque Port of Sandwich later in the Middle Ages.^[78] The importance of the Wantsum Channel was such that, when the River Thames froze in 1269, trade between Sandwich and London had to be carried out overland.^[79] Historical records for the channel are sparse after 1269, perhaps "because the route was so well known as to be taken for granted [in the Middle Ages], the whole waterway from London to Sandwich being occasionally spoken of as the 'Thames'".^[80] But silting and inning had closed the channel to trading vessels sailing along it by about 1460 or soon after, and the first bridge was built over it at Sarre in 1485, since ferries could no longer operate reliably across it.^{[81][Fn 18]}

Reculver was also diminished by coastal erosion. By 1540, when John Leland recorded a visit there, the coastline to the north had receded to within little more than a quarter of a mile (400 m) of the "Towne [which] at this tyme [was] but Village lyke".^[85] Soon afterwards, in 1576, William Lambarde described Reculver as "poore and simple".^[86] In 1588 there were 165 communicants – people taking part in services of holy communion at the church – and in 1640 there were 169,^[68] but a map of about 1630 shows that the church then stood only about 500 feet (152 m) from the shore.^{[87][Fn 19]} In January 1658 the local justices of the peace were petitioned concerning "encroachments of the sea ... [which had] since Michaelmas last [29 September 1657] encroached on the land near six rods [99 feet (30 m)], and will doubtless do more harm".^[88] The village's failure to support two "beer shops" in the 1660s points clearly to a declining population,^[89] and the village was mostly abandoned around the end of the 18th century, its residents moving to Hillborough, about 1.25 miles (2 km) south-west of Reculver but within the same parish.^{[90][Fn 20]}

The redundant vicarage at Reculver in use as a temporary replacement for the Hoy and Anchor Inn, in 1809:^[92] the original inn stood a short distance north of the church and west of the Roman fort.

Concern about erosion of the cliff on which the church stood, and the possible inundation of the village, had led the commissioners of sewers to install costly sea defences consisting of planking and piling before 1783, when it was reported that the commissioners had adopted a scheme proposed by Sir Thomas Page to protect the church: the sea defences had proven counter-productive, since sea water collected behind them and continued to undermine the cliff.^[93] Before this, according to John Duncombe, "the commissioners of sewers, and the occupiers who pay scots, [had] no view nor interest but to secure the level [ground], which must be overflowed when the hill is washed away."^[94] By 1787 Reculver had "dwindled into an insignificant village, thinly decked with the cottages of fishermen and smugglers."^{[95][Fn 21]}

[At about this time,] from the present shore as far as a place called the Black Rock, seen at lowwater mark, where tradition says, a parish church once stood, there [were] found quantities of tiles, bricks, fragments of walls, tesselated pavements, and other marks of a ruinated town, and the household furniture, dress, and equipment of the horses belonging to the inhabitants of it, [were] continually found among the sands ...

— Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9, 1800^{[68][Fn 22]}

Reculver towers, framed by the Millennium Cross of 2000 and the King Ethelbert Inn

In September 1804 a high tide and strong winds led to the destruction of five houses, one of which was "an ancient building, immediately opposite the public house, and had the appearance of having been part of some monastic erection".^[98] The following year, according to a set of notes written by the parish clerk John Brett, "Reculver Church and willage stood in safety",^[99] but in 1806 the sea began to encroach on the village, and in 1807 the local farmers dismantled the sea defences, after which "the village became a total [wreck] to the mercy of the sea."^{[99][Fn 23]}

A further scheme to protect the cliff and church was proposed by John Rennie, but a decision was taken on 12 January 1808 to demolish the church.^[102] By March 1809, erosion of the cliff had brought it to within 12 feet (4 m) of the church, and demolition was begun in September that year.^{[103][Fn 24]} Trinity House intervened to ensure that the towers were preserved as a navigational aid, and in 1810 it bought what was left of the structure for £100 and built the first groynes, designed to protect the cliff on which the ruined church stands.^[109] The vicarage was abandoned at the same time as the church, or a little later,^{[110][Fn 25]} and a replacement parish church was built at Hillborough, opening in 1813.^[112]

Reculver viewed from the cliff-top in the country park in 2009: until the late 18th century the centre of Reculver village was slightly left of centre in the area shown.

After the sea undermined the foundations of the Hoy and Anchor Inn at Reculver in January 1808, the building was taken down and the redundant vicarage was used as a temporary replacement under the same name.^{[113][Fn 26]} Although it was reported in 1800 that there were then only five or six houses left in the village,^[68] a new Hoy and Anchor Inn was built by 1809,^[115] and this was renamed as the King Ethelbert Inn by 1838.^{[116][Fn 27]} Further construction work is indicated by a stone over the doorway to the inn bearing a date of 1843,^[124] and it was later extended into the form in which it stands today, "probably ... in 1883".^{[125][Fn 28]}

Today the site of the church, including the upper part of the sea defences there, is managed by English Heritage, and the village has all but disappeared.^{[127][Fn 29]} The present appearance of the cliff below the church, a grassy slope above a large stone apron, was the work of central government and was in place by April 1867.^[129] In 2000 the surviving fragments of an early medieval cross that once stood inside the old church were used to design a Millennium Cross to commemorate two thousand years of Christianity. This stands at the entrance to the car park and was commissioned by Canterbury City Council.^[130]

Bouncing bombs

Barnes Wallis and others watching an Upkeep bouncing bomb prototype strike the shoreline at Reculver, 1943

During the Second World War, the coastline east of the village was used to test prototypes of Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb.^[131] This area was chosen for its seclusion,^[132] while the clear landmark of the church towers and the ease of recovering prototypes from the shallow water were probably also factors.^{[133][Fn 30]} Different, inert versions of the bomb were tested at Reculver, leading to the development of the operational version known as "Upkeep".^[135] This bomb was used by the RAF's 617 Squadron in Operation Chastise, otherwise known as the Dambuster raids, in which dams in the Ruhr district of Germany were attacked on the night of 16–17 May 1943 by formations of Lancaster bombers. On 17 May 2003 a Lancaster bomber overflew the Reculver testing site to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the exploit.^[136]

Two prototype bouncing bombs, about 6 feet (2 m) long and 3 feet (1 m) wide, lay in marshland behind the sea wall until about 1977, when they were removed by the Army.^[133] Other prototypes were recovered from the shoreline in 1997, one of which is in Herne Bay Museum and Gallery, a little over 3 miles (5 km) west of Reculver.^[137] Others are on display in Dover Castle and in the Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum at the former RAF Manston, on the Isle of Thanet.^[138] Part of an inert Upkeep bomb, consisting mostly of a circular end with some of its filling still adhering, was uncovered during beach maintenance work undertaken at Reculver by the Environment Agency on 29 March 2017.^[139]

Community facilities

Reculver Church of England Primary School is adjacent to the church at Hillborough.^[208] The school's site also hosts Beltinge Day Nursery and Reculver Breakfast and Afterschool Club.^[209] The nearest school for older children is Herne Bay High School.^[210]

The nearest post office is in Beltinge, about 1.9 miles (3.1 km) to the west-southwest.^[211] The nearest general practitioner (GP) surgery is about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) to the south-west, between Bishopstone and Hillborough, with others in Beltinge, Herne Bay, Broomfield and St Nicholas-at-Wade.^[212] While the nearest general hospital is the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, about 2.5 miles (4 km) to the west in Herne Bay,^[213] the closest hospital with an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department is the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, about 8.2 miles (13.2 km) to the east in Margate.^[214] The nearest community centre is Reculver and Beltinge Memorial Hall, about 1.9 miles (3.1 km) to the west-southwest.^[215]

Ruined church of St Mary

Reculver church intact in 1800 (above), and in ruins in the early 1900s (below)

The medieval towers of the ruined church of St Mary are Reculver's "most dominant features".^[216] They were added in the late 12th century to a church founded in 669, when King Ecgberht of Kent granted land to Bassa the priest for the foundation of a monastery.^[51] The church was sited near the centre of the Roman fort, and was built "almost completely from demolished Roman structures".^[217] In 692 the monastery's abbot Berhtwald was elected archbishop of Canterbury,^[218] and King Eadberht II of Kent was buried inside the church in the 760s.^{[219][Fn 42]} The church building was considerably enlarged over time, the last additions being made in the 15th century.^{[222][Fn 43]} But it retained many prominent Anglo-Saxon features, including a triple chancel arch and a stone high cross, though this had been removed by 1784.^{[226][Fn 44]}

The church was demolished in 1809, in what has been described as "an act of vandalism for which there can be few parallels even in the blackest records of the nineteenth century".^[228] Archaeological excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries established the building sequence of the church, and areas of missing wall are marked on the ground by concrete edged with flint.^[229] The ruins are now in the care of English Heritage.^[230] The sea defences protecting them were installed by Trinity House in 1810, but are now maintained by the Environment Agency.^[109] Fragments of the stone cross, and two stone columns that had been part of the church's triple chancel arch, are on display in Canterbury Cathedral.^{[130][Fn 45]}

A byname for the towers is the "Twin Sisters", and an account of how this first arose was current about a hundred years after its supposed happening in the late 15th century, but in its usual form, for example in a 19th-century travel guide,^[231] it is mostly an invention created around "pseudo-historical detail".^{[232][Fn 46]} The Ingoldsby Legends includes a re-invention of the story in which two brothers, Robert and Richard de Birchington, are substituted for the two sisters.^[234] Clive Aslet used the byname in noting that, in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Goldfinger, the villain Auric Goldfinger "lived at Reculver".^[235]

Country park

Eurasian curlew at Reculver, 2007

Reculver Country Park is a nature reserve managed by Canterbury City Council and the Kent Wildlife Trust.^[236] It covers 64 acres (26 ha) and comprises a narrow strip of protected, cliff-top land about 1.5 miles (2 km) long, running from the remaining enclosure of the Roman fort west to Bishopstone Glen. Most of the cliff-top and all of the foreshore in this area are included in the Thanet Coast SSSI, the Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay SPA and the similarly named Ramsar site; most of the Country Park is also part of the Bishopstone Cliffs local nature reserve, which covers 166.5 acres (67.4 ha) of the coastline between Beltinge and Reculver.^[237] In winter brent geese and wading birds such as sanderlings and turnstones may be seen; during the summer months the largest colony of sand martins in Kent nests in the soft cliffs, on top of which fulmars were also reported to have begun nesting in 2013, and wading curlews may be seen at any time.^[238] The grasslands on the cliff top are among the few remaining cliff-top wildflower meadows left in Kent, and are home to butterflies and skylarks. Also present are the nationally scarce hog's fennel and two species of digger wasp, Alysson lunicornis and Ectemnius ruficornis.^{[239][240][Fn 47]} The coastline here forms part of the "key on-land Palaeocene site in the London Basin",^[239] and is the only location in the Woolwich Beds to contain wood.^[239] The foreshore displays a "rich invertebrate and vertebrate fossil fauna ... and the section has been extensively studied over many years."^[239] The park first won a Green Flag Award in 2005, and it is estimated that over 200,000 people visit it each year, including up to 3,500 students for educational trips.^[241] Canterbury City Council's Reculver Masterplan envisages purchasing farmland to the south of the country park to replace land lost to the sea through coastal erosion.^[242]

In 2011 it was found that the shoreline in the Herne Bay area, including Reculver, had come under threat from an invasive species, the carpet sea squirt (Didemnum vexillum), also known as "marine vomit".^[243] First recorded in UK waters in 2008, the carpet sea squirt is indigenous to the sea around Japan, but it has been carried to other parts of the world, including New Zealand and the US, on boat hulls, fishing equipment and floating seaweed.^[244] Carpet sea squirt can overgrow other, sessile species, "potentially smothering species living in gravel and affecting fisheries."^{[244][Fn 48]}

Centre for renewable energy

A visitor centre in Reculver Country Park re-opened in 2009 as the Reculver Renewable Energy and Interpretation Centre, "marking 200 years of the moving of Reculver village".^{[245][Fn 49]} The centre features a log burner fuelled by logs from the Blean woodland, solar and photovoltaic panels provide electrical power, and there are displays describing the history, geography and wildlife of the area.^[245]

Footnotes

Notes

Bibliography