Pevensey Castle

Pevensey Castle
Pevensey, East Sussex
Aerial view of Pevensey Castle, showing the Norman keep and bailey within the Roman curtain wall
Pevensey Castle
Coordinates	50°49′08″N 0°20′03″E / 50.8188°N 0.3342°E / 50.8188; 0.3342Coordinates: 50°49′08″N 0°20′03″E / 50.8188°N 0.3342°E / 50.8188; 0.3342
Grid reference	grid reference TQ644048
Type	Castle
Height	c. 9.5 metres (31 ft) (outer walls)
Site information
Controlled by	English Heritage
Condition	Ruin
Site history
Built	c. 290 AD
Built by	Carausius?
In use	c. 290–471/491, 1066 – mid-16th century, 1940–1945
Materials	Wood, cement, flint, chalk, ironstone, greensand, sandstone
Battles/wars	Massacre of 491, First Siege of Pevensey (1088), Second Siege of Pevensey (1147), Third Siege of Pevensey (1264–65), Fourth Siege of Pevensey (1399)
Events	Built by Romans (c. 290), reoccupied by Normans (1066), slighted (c. 1216), abandoned (16th century), state ownership (1925), reoccupied by Allies (1940–45)
Garrison information
Garrison	Classis Anderidaensis, Abulci (Roman era), Norman & English forces (medieval era), Home Guard, British Army, Canadian Army, United States Army Air Corps (1940–45)

Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman Saxon Shore fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a Scheduled Monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors. Built around 290 AD and known to the Romans as Anderitum, the fort appears to have been the base for a fleet called the Classis Anderidaensis. The reasons for its construction are unclear; long thought to have been part of a Roman defensive system to guard the British and Gallic coasts against Saxon pirates, it has more recently been suggested that Anderitum and the other Saxon Shore forts were built by a usurper in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent Rome from reimposing its control over Britain.

Anderitum fell into ruin following the end of the Roman occupation but was reoccupied in 1066 by the Normans, for whom it became a key strategic bulwark. A stone keep and fortification was built within the Roman walls and faced several sieges. Although its garrison was twice starved into surrender, it was never successfully stormed. The castle was occupied more or less continuously until the 16th century, apart from a possible break in the early 13th century when it was slighted. It had been abandoned again by the late 16th century and remained a crumbling, partly overgrown ruin until it was acquired by the state in 1925.

Pevensey Castle was reoccupied between 1940 and 1945, during the Second World War, when it was garrisoned by units from the Home Guard, the British and Canadian armies and the United States Army Air Corps. Machine-gun posts were built into the Roman and Norman walls to control the flat land around Pevensey and guard against the threat of a German invasion. They were left in place after the war and can still be seen today.