Richborough
Encyclopedia
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
on the east coast of the county of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Richborough lies close to the Isle of Thanet
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the nearly -wide River Wantsum, it is no longer an island ....
.
Although now some distance from the sea, Richborough stood at the southern end of the Wantsum Channel
Wantsum Channel
The Wantsum Channel is the name given to a now silted-up watercourse separating the Isle of Thanet and what was the mainland of the English county of Kent...
from prehistory to the early mediaeval period. The channel provided a safe searoute from the continent to the Thames estuary and separated the Isle of Thanet
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the nearly -wide River Wantsum, it is no longer an island ....
from the mainland.
The channel has now silted up; prior to this, Richborough was an important natural harbour and was the landing place of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. Until October 2008 there was uncertainty whether this was the site of the Claudian invasion of Britain
Site of the Claudian invasion of Britain
The site of the Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43 is a matter of some controversy. Although it is generally believed that the force left from Gesoriacum , it is possible that part of the fleet sailed from near the mouth of the Rhine. And while Rutupiæ is often stated as the site of the landing...
, two ditches at the site have been dated to the Roman period were interpreted as defensive structures however some archaeologists had favoured the theory that the landing took place in the vicinity of modern-day Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
. The 2008 discovery proved that this was a defensive site of a Roman beachhead, protecting 700 metres of coast.
Richborough is a suffragan bishop
Suffragan bishop
A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...
ric of the Diocese of Canterbury
Diocese of Canterbury
The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering eastern Kent, founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. It is centred on Canterbury Cathedral, and is the oldest see of the Church of England....
, created in 1995 to provide a second provincial episcopal visitor
Provincial episcopal visitor
A provincial episcopal visitor is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who do not in conscience accept the ministry of women priests....
(after Ebbsfleet) for the Province of Canterbury
Province of Canterbury
The Province of Canterbury, also called the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England...
. , the present Bishop of Richborough is the Right Reverend Keith Newton
Keith Newton (bishop)
Revd Msgr Keith Newton PA is an English priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Newton was formerly a bishop of the Church of England and served as the Bishop of Richborough in the Province of Canterbury from 2002 to...
. External link: Richborough Episcopal Area website
Roman and Saxon history
The Romans founded the site and, after their withdrawal, the site was occupied by a Saxon religious settlement (since St AugustineAugustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...
landed in 597 at nearby Ebbsfleet
Ebbsfleet, Thanet
Ebbsfleet is a hamlet near Ramsgate, Kent, at the head of Pegwell Bay. Historically it was a peninsula on the south coast of the Isle of Thanet, marking the eastern end of the Wantsum Channel that separated Thanet from the rest of Kent....
).
The site is managed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
who run historical events on the site throughout the summer.
Port Richborough
Port Richborough is an industrial portPort
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
situated some three miles north of Sandwich
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
. The port is served by a bus service between Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
and Sandwich
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
. It was built during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
to service troop and equipment movements to and from the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
, mostly to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
and Dunkerque. It was predominantly manned by Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
Inland Water Transport (IWT) staff. In September 1918 the military port consisted of 45,636 men, this at a time when the population of Sandwich was only 3,500.
Served by extensive freight siding
Siding
Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value....
s on the South Eastern Railway
South Eastern Railway (UK)
The South Eastern Railway was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent...
, and to a lesser extent by the East Kent Light Railway, Port Richborough was the home to the world's first roll-on/roll-off ferry service.
Today, much of the southern part of the site formerly HMS Robertson is the UK headquarters of the pharmaceuticalcompany Pfizer
Pfizer
Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...
. Whilst the northern part is used for industrial storage, little of the old port complex remains except for the wharf wall on the River Stour
River Stour, Kent
The River Stour is the river in Kent, England that flows into the English Channel at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes...
used until the 1990s by Bretts as a shingle and bulk materials transit point.
Richborough Power Station
The Richborough Power StationRichborough Power Station
Richborough Power Station is a former power station close to the mouth of the River Stour near Sandwich, on the east coast of Kent. It was built on land within the Port of Richborough but being on the northern edge is mostly within the neighbouring parish of Minster, Kent.The power station can be...
was opened, within the port, in 1962 burning coal as its fuel. Then in 1971 it was converted to run on oil before it was finally converted again to burn the controversial fuel Orimulsion
Orimulsion
Orimulsion is a registered trademark name for a bitumen-based fuel that was developed for industrial use by Intevep, the Research and Development Affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela SA , following earlier collaboration on oil emulsions with British Petroleum.-Source of the bitumen:Like coal and...
. During the final years of operation of the power station, used Orimulsion
Orimulsion
Orimulsion is a registered trademark name for a bitumen-based fuel that was developed for industrial use by Intevep, the Research and Development Affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela SA , following earlier collaboration on oil emulsions with British Petroleum.-Source of the bitumen:Like coal and...
as a fuel, an emulsion origination from the Orinoco Basin which was offloaded here. It closed down in 1996, though much of it still remains in situ including the three cooling tower
Cooling tower
Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or in the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers rely...
s.