Rochester is a town and former city in Kent, England. It is located at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about from London. The town's location is due to the bridge which carries the Roman Watling Street (now the A2) over the river.
Name The source of the Romano-British name for Rochester, Durobrivae, has been a matter of some debate.
The name Durobrivae can be translated as "stronghold" or "fort" by the "bridge" or "bridges".Glover This could have been the oppidum (see pre-Roman history, below) or a pre-Roman fort. No such fort has been discovered by archaeologists, but much of the land has been disturbed by the succeeding two millennia of continuous occupation. Alternatively, Durobrivae may refer to a small fort set up by Aulus Plautius, the general in charge of the first phase of the Roman conquest of Britain; it was not needed for long, as Kent was soon settled. More fundamentally, there was no bridge in AD 43.Marsh The Romans did eventually bridge the river: see the article Rochester Bridge. The Roman pioneers may even have initially built a pontoon bridge to supply the advancing army, replacing it with this permanent structure later.
The alternative explanation notes that Durobrivae was also recorded as Durobrovum and Durobrivis. Either of these could be a Latinisation of the British word Dourbruf meaning "swift stream".Kellys
The name is recorded as Durobrivis in around 730 and Dorobrevis in 844. The first of these was pronounced as "Robrivis". Bede copied down the name, c730, mistaking its meaning as "Hrofi's fortified camp" (OE Hrofes cæster). From this comes c730 Hrofæscæstre, 811 Hrofescester, 1086 Rovescester, 1610 Rochester.
From Bede's time the name contained the Latin word castra, which is present in the names of many cities that were once Roman camps (e.g. Chester Latin Deva). It is often assumed that Rochester was a fortified Roman town, but no evidence has been found of a formal fort. The Roman street pattern suggests that it was a line of shops and houses built alongside a road, the characteristic pattern of a vicus. Systematic fortification did take place after AD 175 and this of course was well before Bede's time.
The Latinised adjective Roffensis refers to Rochester.
Ancient
Settlement in the area is first evidenced by the Neolithic Medway megaliths, particularly Kit's Coty House. Within the area of Rochester itself Belgic remains under the Roman levels were found in 1961 by R. E. Chaplin. Coin moulds suggest that this was a centre of some importance.Detsicas 1983 cited by Howell 2014 p 40
Celtic Rochester was one of the two oppida of the Cantiaci tribe, the western administrative centre of the Celtic kingdom (the other being their capital of Durovernum Cantiacorum, modern day Canterbury). The Celtic trackway which became Watling Street probably passed through on roughly the current alignment: the geography of the Medway dictates the best crossing point.
Roman Permanent Roman occupation began with the Claudian invasion in AD 43. The precise route of the Roman advance has been debated; the army could have come along what is now the Pilgrim's Way to Aylesford or along Watling Street to Rochester. The Medway crossing was opposed, resulting in the Battle of the Medway which was notable for taking two days, unusual for that period.
The Kentish oppidum was transformed into the Roman settlement of Durobrivae. Its layout establishes the present High Street and Northgate and Boley Hill. The Romans bridged the river at the same point as the present bridge, for Victorian engineers building the bridge discovered the Roman footings.The Roman Bridge There were nine piers of composite stone, timber and rubble construction. On top of the piers longtitudinal timber beams provided the actual bridging structure, with cross planking to form the road surface. They constructed a substantial causeway, wide, over the marshy ground on the Strood Side of the river, extending from the river to the present day Angel Corner.
In more settled times, the combination of transport links and the fertile Medway valley became the basis of a developed agricultural economy. Compared to the rest of the country there was a marked abundance of Roman villas lining the valley from Rochester down to Maidstone.Myres p123 During the 190s systematic earthen fortifications were established which were replaced in stone during the 220s. Some of these stone defences are still extant.
In AD 407, the last Roman legions left Britain. Following severe Saxon raids in 408 and 409, Honorius sent a letter in 410 to the cities of Britain urging them to look to their own defences. Later in 410, Rome itself fell. Although these dates mark significant changes, a protracted period of sub-Roman culture continued.
Medieval
Saxon Following the withdrawal of the legions, the defences of the British kingdoms suffered. Eventually, in AD 449, the Jutish brothers Hengist and Horsa landed at Ebbsfleet or possibly Milton Creek, possibly both. The Britons were defeated at Aylesford, leading to the establishment of a Kingdom of Kent uniting Jutes and Saxons. The town of Rochester became the centre of the Cesterwara Lathe.Myres p125 By the early 7th century Rochester boasted a market and a port reeve.Lyon p127
In AD 560, King Ethelbert of Kent came to the throne of Kent. Around AD 600 he promulgated a code of about 90 laws defining crimes and punishments. The code was regarded as sufficiently significant that in the twelfth century (over 500 years later) they were written down in the Textus Roffensis, the "Book of [the church of] Rochester". Although the only surviving copy is the Textus, the laws are referred to by both Bede and Alfred the Great. Æthelberht's laws are thought to be both the earliest law code of any kind in any Germanic language and their wording the earliest surviving document in the English language.
In AD 597, Augustine of Canterbury established the See of Canterbury, and in AD 604 sent Justus to found a cathedral and become the first bishop in Rochester, indicating the interest in the area on the part of the Roman mission organized from Canterbury. The foundations of a small early Kentish church, under the later Norman cathedral, are identified as belonging to Justus's cathedral, dedicated to St. Andrew;Brooks pp. 24-27. the original cathedral was high and wide. The apse is marked in the present cathedral. Under the Roman system, a bishop was required to have at his see a school for educating suitable persons for the ministry.Whitelock p189 In addition, to provide music a choir school was established which has become The King's School.Loyn p269. Loyn misprints Canterbury for Rochester: Canterbury goes back to the previous decade. The cathedral was served by secular canons, "a body of clergy who lived together but were unbound by any monastic rule".Stenton p146 This contrasts sharply with the monasticism of the Celtic church, which was one of the factors to figure in the struggle for control of the Church in England. It is notable that Bishop Felix of Burgundy provided to Sigeberht of East Anglia "master and teachers according to the customs of Kent".
England had become religiously unified following the synod of Whitby in AD 664; politically, though, it was still divided into a number of often warring kingdoms. Following the death of Penda of Mercia a period of turmoil had followed during which Surrey had been annexed by the Mercians. The first recorded act of Æthelred of Mercia in AD 676 was to ravage Kent, destroying Rochester. Three reasons have been suggested for this attack: to prevent King Hlothhere of Kent from regaining control of Surrey, to seek revenge for the murder of the sons of Eormenred of Kent, or at the instigation of the kings of Essex who solicited the invasion in response to recent Kentish attempts to gain dominance over the East Saxons. The damage to the see of Rochester was so great that the incumbent bishop, Putta, retired from his diocese; his appointed successor, Cwichelm, also gave up the see "because of its poverty".Bede p.226 (Book IV, chapter 12) The thrymsa coinage had become debased so in the 690s it was replaced by silver coins known as sceattas (probably called "pennies") struck in at least six mints including the one at Rochester.Laing & Laing p.123 The coins continued in use until the 750s. Bede, in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (AD 730), records the name of the city as Hrofæscæstre (see the discussion above under Taxonomy). Sigered, a client king to Offa of Mercia, styled himself Rex Cantiae and granted land in Rochester to the bishop.Stenton p206 Three years later, in 765, his successor Egbert gave more land and the charter was confirmed by Offa as overlord.Stenton p207
In AD 842 Rochester was sacked by invading Danes and was under siege again from them in AD 884. This time the town held out until relieved by King Alfred.Stenton p257 In the 10th century Rochester had the right to mint coins (AD 930). The wooden bridge is mentioned in AD 960, though this may have been a rebuilding in timber using the Roman piers.Rochester, The past 2000 yearsStenton p536Harrison & Evemy p10 Slightly later, during Edward the Confessor's reign, various local estates were documented as having a duty to repair Rochester bridge. For instance: "The second pier belongs to Gillingham and to Chatham, and they have to provide planks for one pole and put three beams in position".Whitelock p77
Norman The events of 1066 initiated a period of change for Rochester. In 1067, William's half brother Odo was created Earl of Kent. During the period 1067–1076 Odo acquired land all over England including much of the land that once belonged to Rochester Cathedral. At the Trial of Penenden Heath in that year the land was recovered. In 1077 Gundulf was consecrated Bishop of Rochester.
One of the first acts Gundulf performed as bishop was to found a hospital for the poor and leprous. Of the original buildings only the chapel survives, the new St. Bartholomew's Hospital is of 19th-century construction.
The cathedral was by now four and a half centuries old and had become derelict. Always under the ecclesiastical and financial shadow of Canterbury, by the end of Siward's episcopate (1058–1075) it was served by four or five canons "living in squalor and poverty".Barlow p221 That it had remained secular is not in doubt; one of the canons, Æthelric, became priest of Chatham and made a gift to the cathedral for the soul and burial of Godgifu, his wife.Barlow p222
With the income from the restored lands Gundulf started to rebuild the cathedral in 1080 a little to the east of its previous site. The church had a threefold purpose: it became the heart of the new Benedictine priory of St Andrew's, it was the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Rochester and it housed the parochial altar of St Nicholas' which served the city. This first phase of the cathedral was complete by 1130. About five years earlier, the Textus Roffensis had been written. It contains the foundation charters of the cathedral and diocese, two copies of pre-Conquest Kent parishes and the Laws of Ethelbert (referred to above). The textus also contains a catalogue of the books in the cathedral library at that time. One hundred and sixteen volumes are named.MacKean p6