Richborough

Richborough
The remains of Richborough Roman Fort
Richborough Location within Kent
OS grid reference	TR315605
• London	103.5 km (64.3 mi)
District	Dover
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SANDWICH
Postcode district	CT13
Dialling code	01304
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	South Thanet
List of places UK England Kent 51°17′47″N 1°19′09″E / 51.2965°N 1.3192°E / 51.2965; 1.3192

Richborough (/ˈrɪtʃbərə/) is a settlement north of Sandwich on the east coast of the county of Kent, England. Richborough lies close to the Isle of Thanet. The population of the settlement is included in the civil parish of Ash.

Although now some distance from the sea, Richborough stood at the southern end of the Wantsum Channel from prehistory to the early medieval period. The channel provided a safe searoute from the continent to the Thames estuary and separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland.

The channel has now silted up, but prior to this, Richborough was an important natural harbour and was the landing place of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43.^[1] Until October 2008 there was uncertainty whether this was the site of the Claudian invasion of Britain; two ditches at the site which 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. The 2008 discovery proved that this was a defensive site of a Roman beachhead, protecting 700 metres (770 yd) of coast.^[2]

The suffragan bishop of Richborough, in the Diocese of Canterbury, was created in 1995 to provide a second provincial episcopal visitor (after Ebbsfleet) for the Province of Canterbury.