Guildhall Museum

Julius Caesar made expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BC, but in 43 AD Claudius launched a full invasion and colonisation. Richborough, then an island, was the Roman beachhead. They built a port Rutupiae, a fort, and roads for their troops, chiefly Watling Street to London. They also brought an elephant, perhaps guessing that they were unlikely to find one over here. As they subdued Britain and the front line receded, Rutupiae grew as a civilian settlement with temples, an amphitheatre (now just an earth embankment) and a mansion house for government officials and business. A grand triumphal arch spanned Watling Street: only the foundations remain as the Romans themselves dismantled it. That was probably circa 280 AD, to re-use the stone as a Saxon Shore Fort, one of a series guarding the channel coast. There was a Christian church here in the 4th century, built either in the last days of the Roman Empire in Britain or in the early Saxon period.