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Did you know that within the time of the Iron Age a farmstead existed at Reculver and when the Romans invaded in AD43 a minor fortress was built on the site? A sizeable fortress was built at some point in the 3rd Century.

In the 7th century a monastery and church were built within the ruins of the fortress. Alas the Vikings destroyed the monastery but then in the 12th century the church was added to and the easily recognizable twin towers were added to the building. As the 19th century approached the church had fallen into disrepair because of coastal erosion. But today the remains can be seen. The Roman Fort and the twin towers and Saxon Church are looked after by English Heritage. Reculver is good place to visit at any time of the year. There is an Information Centre run by Kent Wildlife Trust and a shop and also a pub. It's not a busy hectic place and one of the best times to visit is on an early morning walk. You can walk up from Herne Bay Town or start from Reculver walk down to HB Town where you will find the Museum and Gallery, Shops and places to eat and so on.

Reculver sea defences were beginning to show ther age by the 1990's and Canterbury City Council spent £4.5 million improving them. As you can see when you visit Reculver, rock groynes were put in place and then in between the groynes of rock tonnes of shingle were poured onto the beach. In 1999 huge amounts of mammoth boulders were sited at the front of the East and West sea walls. This process is called beach nourishment and continues annually in the winter to put back the substance misplaced and lost by longshore drift.

1990s
By 1995 a large number of sea defences were showing their age and the Environment Agency and Canterbury City Council spent some £4.5 million upgrading the coastal defences at Reculver.
Prior to this, there had already been the need to start a beach nourishment scheme whereby shingle was brought in by lorry and dumped on the beach each winter. To the west of the Twin Towers, 14 rock groynes were built using large blocks of hard, mainly igneous, rock. In between the rock groynes, half a million tonnes of shingle were sprayed on to the beach from a dredger anchored offshore. Together,
the rock groynes and the extra shingle were expected to protect the sea wall from further erosion and undermining by winter storms.
In 1999, further work was carried out at Reculver to strengthen even further the defences. The concrete sea walls were repaired. The last of the old wooden and metal groynes were removed and thousands of tonnes of massive boulders were placed in front of the western and eastern sea walls. Some of the individual boulders weighed up to 10 tonnes each! Beach nourishment continues each winter to replace the material lost by longshore drift.

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