Reculver's twin towers belong to a church that grew up inside a Roman shore fort, where a Kentish king founded a monastery in 669
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
When the Romans held Kent, this low headland looked out over the Wantsum Channel, the sea lane that then cut the Isle of Thanet off from mainland Kent. Early in the 3rd century the army built a square fort with rounded corners here, with flint walls backed by earth banks and two ditches outside. Reculver was one of the first of the forts later known as the Saxon Shore, a chain of coastal strongholds from Norfolk round to Hampshire, and Richborough stood at the other end of the same channel.
After the Romans left, the empty fort made a ready-walled site for a church. In 669 King Ecgberht of Kent gave the land for a monastery, and a church of St Mary went up near the middle of the fort, built largely from Roman brick and rubble. Concrete lines on the ground now mark its first foundations. The church later served the parish, and in the 12th century its builders added the two tall towers at the west end.
In 1540 about 400 metres of land still lay between the church and the sea. Then the soft cliffs began to go fast, and by 1781 the fort’s north-west corner had collapsed. Urged on by their vicar, the parishioners agreed to abandon the church, and in 1809 most of it was pulled down. The towers were spared as a mark for ships, and Trinity House, which looks after lighthouses in England and Wales, bought them to keep them standing. Much of the stone went into the new harbour at Margate.
Today about half the fort is left, and you can follow the outside of its southern and eastern walls, still close to three metres high in places, and find the east and south gateways. The site is open free in daylight. Volunteers open the north tower on occasional days for the view along the coast, and Reculver Country Park runs west along the clifftop from the towers. During the Second World War the bouncing bombs for the Dam Busters raid were tested on the sands just offshore. The Saxon Shore Way and the King Charles III England Coast Path both pass the towers, and Herne Bay is a few miles west along the shore.
Full name: Reculver Saxon Shore fort, Anglo-Saxon monastery and associated remains
More at the National Heritage List entry
