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ROMANO-BRITISH SUFFOLK Bulls ClifF, at Felixstowe. Marshes at the foot of this high land, and the traces of a waterway in the marshes, in fact, seem to point out the line or which the united waters of the Stour and Orwell reached the sea in very early times. Between the Deben and these other estuaries lay a broad flat tract of land some miles in extent, a sort of peninsula. In the Roman period this tract projected farther into the North Sea than it does now. On a site on this land about a mile south of the mouth of the Deben, but possibly then at some distance from the sea-shore, stood the fortress whose history, scanty as it is, is still worth tracing. Of the walls not a fragment remains above the waves, which undermined the last relics of them in the i8th century. Now and again when the tide is at its lowest two or three weed-covered masses may be seen, but that is all there is to show that a Roman station once stood on the spot. Fortunately the memory of it has been preserved in letters and drawings which show clearly enough the character of the buildings. The place was known in the 17th century, and probably much earlier, by the name of Walton Castle, no doubt from some traces remaining within the inclosure of the Roman walls of a keep and other structures of the 12th century, built by the rebel earl Hugh Bigod, whose castle here was destroyed by the king (Henry II) after the suppression of the rebellion in which the earl had been engaged." However this may be, it is not until the i8th century that it is possible to speak with any certainty as to the remains called Walton Castle, and then the descriptions show them to be clearly Roman. The first in date is the follow- ing, which occurs in vol. i of the Minute Books of the Society of Antiquaries under date 28 November 1722, in a letter from Dr. Knight. It runs thus: — Some distance East of this town (i.e. the neighbouring village of Walton) are the ruins of a Roman Wall situate on the Ridge of a clifF next the Sea between Languard fFort and Woodbridge River (the Deben) on Bawdsey haven. 'Tis 1 00 yards long, five foot above ground 12 broad at each end and turned with an angle. Its composed of Pepple and Roman bricks in three courses, all round footsteps of buildings, and several large pieces of Wall cast down upon the Strand by the Seas undermining ye ClifF all which have Roman brick. At low water mark very much of the like is visible at some distance in the Sea. There are two entire Pillars with Balls, the ClifF is 100 foot high. The next notice that can be given is from Kirby's Suffolk Traveller (1735), where it is stated under the head of Walton : — ' For the neighbouring Parish of Felixstowe on the Colnes side of Woodbridge (Bardsey) haven, still appear the ruins of a quadrangular castle, advantageously situated ' ; and further and more fully in the second edition of his book, published in 1754, he says : He that would look for the Site of this Castle (i.e. of Walton) within the bounds of Walton strictly taken will never find it ; but upon a high ClifF in Felixstowe, at the distance of about one mile from the mouth of Woodbridge River (the Deben) and two miles from Orwell Haven, Part of the Foundation of the West Side of it, is still to be seen : being now One Hundred and Eighty-seven yards in Length, and nine feet thick ; it is called by the Country People, Stone- Works. How much larger it was we cannot judge. Part of the South end being washed away : and the Sea, which is daily gaining upon this coast having swallowed up the ruins. Such was the condition of it about the year 1740 : but since then the Sea hath washed away the remainder of the Foundation. There can be no doubt but Walton Castle was a Roman Fortification as appears from the great Variety of Roman Urns, Rings, Coins, etc., that have been found there, etc. " On the Pipe Roll of 22 Hen. II, an. 1 1 76, is the amount of the costs involved in its destruction. The Norman additions to the Roman fortress would find a parallel in those made within the Roman walls of Pevensey {Anderidd), another of the 'forts of the Saxon Shore.' 1 289 37