Romans in the Solent: Forts, Villas, and Surprises

The Solent coast of southern England has a patchwork of Roman-era remains and, equally, some surprising gaps. In Hampshire and West Sussex, the Romans did build fortresses, ports and luxury houses, but they didn’t make other things one might expect. Archaeology shows exactly what they left behind (and what they never did). Here’s a casual tour of their footprint and the myths cleared up by modern digs.

Coastal Forts and Defences

Even today, Portchester Castle in Hampshire stands within the nearly complete walls of a Roman fort. Built in the late 3rd century (c. AD 285–290) under the “Carausian” emperors, this Saxon-Shore fort guarded Portsmouth Harbour. It was likely the base for the Classis Britannica (the British Roman fleet). Archaeologists note that Portchester’s massive curtain walls – 10 feet thick and very tall – make it “the best preserved Roman fort north of the Alps”. A visit reveals arrow-slit windows still visible in the old walls.

Elsewhere along the Solent, smaller Roman forts and fortified ports turn up. Near modern Southampton, excavations at Bitterne Manor confirmed a riverside Roman settlement called Clausentum. It had stone walls and even a four-room bath-house (built around AD 350) whose remains lie under a Southampton park. (Today, all that’s visible are bits of wall and the barn at Bitterne Manor, which actually incorporates Roman walling .) On the Isle of Wight, the Norman Carisbrooke Castle conceals a Roman legacy: beneath its medieval castle lie the foundations of a late-Roman Saxon-Shore fort. In short, the Romans did fortify the Solent shores – but only at a few strategic points. They built no new city at Portsmouth, no garrison at Milford, etc.; their fort chain ran from Portchester westward through Bitterne/Clausentum and even to Carisbrooke. These forts connected the Solent to the wider Roman defence network – nothing like them has been found in between.

Palaces, Villas and Homes

The wealthiest Roman building in the region was Fishbourne Roman Palace (near Chichester). Excavations have revealed an enormous 1st-century AD residence with extensive mosaic floors and formal gardens. It is now understood as the palace of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus (or his successors) – a local chieftain installed by Rome as a loyal client-king. Cogidubnus is even known from inscriptions in Chichester referring to a temple of Neptune and Minerva, which he built nearby. The luxury of Fishbourne – underfloor-heated wings, polychrome mosaics and imported marble – shows Romans didn’t just build military camps here, they built palaces for local elites.

Farther west, on the Isle of Wight, the Romans did not found towns, but they did build villas. In fact, “[t]he Romans built no towns on the island,” but at least seven Roman rural estates are now known. Two of these have been excavated as museums: the Brading Roman Villa (a grand mosaic-floored courtyard villa dating from the 1st–4th centuries) and the Newport Roman Villa (an AD 280 stone farmhouse with underfloor heating and a bath suite). At Brading, for example, a network of rooms with intricate floor designs shows that wealthy farmers were living in Roman style. Even simple pottery kilns and farm buildings have been found there. These island villas had no walls or garrison – they were homes and farms – but they prove the Isle of Wight was integrated into Roman life.

Nearby in Hampshire, scattered villa sites (like a Rockbourne Villa north of the New Forest) also speak to a rural Roman culture. In sum, the Romans of the Solent built a few big houses (palaces and villas) but no new Roman cities. These estates often sat by water. (Fishbourne Palace overlooks Chichester Harbour; Brading Villa sat on Brading Haven, a tidal inlet used in Roman times .) The agricultural boom – vines, grain and livestock – is reflected in the size of these homes. After c. AD 400, most of these estates were abandoned, and local farmers later scraped out the mortar. But the visible wall-footings and mosaics leave no doubt that they once stood.

Roads, Trade and Ports

The Romans also built the infrastructure to connect these sites. We know they laid out roads linking Solent ports with the rest of Britain. For instance, the 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary (a Roman road list) shows Clausentum (Bitterne), 20 miles west of Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) and 10 miles east of Winchester (Venta Belgarum). Archaeologists even found traces of a Roman road running from Bitterne Manor toward Wickham, fitting those distances. From Winchester, the highway went south to the coast, so goods and troops could move between the Solent forts and the inland capitals.

Small Roman ports and quays served coastal trade. Clausentum at Bitterne was itself a port on the Itchen estuary. A modest wharf here linked Southampton Water to Winchester. Elsewhere, Fishbourne Palace was built at the head of a Roman harbour (now silted up); the shoreline there would have accommodated trading vessels. Along the Solent, local pottery (like from Alice Holt kilns) and imported wares would have moved by boat and road between fish-sauce factories (garum) and inland markets. Artefacts of wine amphorae, pottery and coins turn up at these sites, showing that even the south coast saw goods flowing in from the Roman world. In short, the Solent was navigable and connected: small ports and roads stitched Fishbourne, Clausentum, Lymington (?) and other landing places into the empire’s network. There was no single “Solent city” – but many local harbours and roads carried on a busy trade.

Religion, Bathing and Daily Life

Roman culture left its mark on the Solent’s villages too. At Fishbourne, the palace’s mosaics include mythic scenes (dolphins, cupids, hunting) reflecting Mediterranean fashions. In Chichester, an inscription honours Neptune and Minerva, tying Roman gods into local worship. In Clausentum/Bitterne, archaeologists uncovered an altar to Ancasta – a local water-goddess – and even a bronze statuette of Hercules with Celtic styling. These finds show a blending of Roman and native deities on the shores.

Bathing and heating technology were also adopted. Bitterne/Clausentum had a bathhouse (partly free-standing, with several heated rooms). Newport Villa (IOW) has an underfloor-heated (hypocaust) bath suite complete with plaster walls and tiled floors. By contrast, no urban bath-house ruin has been found at Portsmouth or elsewhere here – it was the villa owners who got hot tubs, not the town. Daily life evidence (coins, fine tableware, imported glass) appears in digs. Even in the New Forest fringes, recent excavations at New Copse (near Brockenhurst) have revealed a Roman rural settlement (probable villa) by c. 300 AD, showing that rich hunting-grounds were not immune to Roman farming.

All these points point to a partial Romanisation: native chiefs like Cogidubnus took Roman titles, villas were richly decorated, and Latin literacy spread (we have inscriptions and milestones). But the population was sparse; most villagers stayed in small farmsteads. There were no Roman amphitheatres or massive temples here (nothing like Colchester or Bath), only local shrines and the occasional minor basilica at a villa. The culture was a mix: Solent folk ate Roman-style porridge from terra sigillata bowls, worshipped a pantheon of blended gods, and warmed their floors – but they still lived in what had been a predominantly tribal frontier two hundred years before the invasion.

The Isle of Wight: Villas, Not Towns

A widespread belief was that the Isle of Wight saw no Romans – in fact, an antiquarian in 1816 declared “Of the Romans there is not a vestige in this island”. Modern archaeology completely overturns that. The truth is that the Romans never built a town on Wight, but they did build plenty of farms. As one historian notes, “the Romans built no towns on the island, but it became an agricultural centre, and at least seven Roman villas are known”. In other words, the island was farmland with wealthy estates, not a Roman city like Chichester or Winchester.

Two excavated examples – Brading and Newport – have luxurious mosaics and baths. Five others (at Adgestone, Chessell, Mottistone, etc.) yield pottery and mosaics. These show that around AD 200–300, the Isle of Wight’s chalk downs were heavily farmed (even possibly vineyards in the warmer climate). Brading Villa alone occupied 9 hectares by AD 300 and sat at the mouth of Brading Haven (a natural Solent inlet). So while Wight had no forum or town walls, its villas were clearly serviced by the Solent, producing grain, cattle and wool that Roman fleets and neighbouring ports wanted.

Once we recognise that the IOW was a rural Roman landscape, many myths fade. No one expects to see a “Roman town square” here, and in fact, none existed. Finds of coins and pottery across the island came as a surprise to 19th-century toponymists. In short, the Isle of Wight was Romanised, but as farmland. All the reports of no Romans were simply mistaken; the absence of huge settlements makes it look empty, but the traces of villas and villas’ outbuildings confirm active occupation.

What the Romans Didn’t Build (and Myths Debunked)

Archaeology also clarifies what didn’t happen. For example, it turns out no new Roman town ever sprang up at Portsmouth or Gosport; the nearest military centre was Portchester, a few miles away. Portsmouth only grew later in Anglo-Saxon times. Likewise, many people believe Carisbrooke Castle (IOW) is an “ancient” stone keep dating to Roman days, but it is actually a Norman castle built on top of a Roman fort. In other words, the rocks seen today at Carisbrooke are medieval, even though a 3rd-century fort lies underneath.

Other local legends fail archaeological scrutiny. There is no Roman amphitheatre, theatre or grand forum on the Solent coast; those were features of big Roman towns (none of which were here). Any buried walls at hillforts (e.g. sites like Hurst or Iron Age forts) have turned out to be medieval or Iron Age, not Roman. For instance, no evidence has been found for a Roman fort at Netley or Lee-on-the-Solent despite occasional rumours. And while the Solent sea floor hides many shipwrecks, none has yielded a sunken Roman fleet base here (that was at Boulogne or Rutupiae).

Perhaps most importantly, scholars once thought the Isle of Wight had zero Roman remains. That myth is flatly false; archaeology has proved it wrong. Conversely, some still repeat that the New Forest was entirely off-limits for Romans. While dense forest was never cleared, excavations at places like New Copse, Brockenhurst (2017–18) did find a Roman villa in the heart of the Forest. So even there, the Romans left some footprints, albeit very isolated.

In summary, the Romans did build substantial forts (Portchester, Clausentum and a few others) and lavish homes (Fishbourne, Brading, Newport) and set down roads and minor ports around the Solent. But they never laid out a grid of towns on the coast, and they left most areas at worst lightly farmed or forested. Modern digs have debunked the old lore: where people once imagined Roman camps or ruined temples, we often find nothing Roman at all. The real Roman story of the Solent is a balanced one – part military strategy, part rural estate-building, and part quietly fading away, not endless stone ruins. Thanks to archaeology, today’s visitors can separate the intriguing facts (a 3rd‑century fort here, a mosaic floor there) from the tales and make-believe of the past.

Sources: Excavation reports and archaeological syntheses show exactly what has been found (or not found) along the Solent. Key references include publications by the Hampshire and Sussex archaeology trusts and site guides to Portchester and Fishbourne, which confirm the Roman remains described above.