Sudbrook

Nearest town:
Chepstow (7km NNE)
OS reference:
ST505873
OS sheets:
162, 172
Latitude:
51° 34' 54.68 N
Longitude:
2° 42' 52.12 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by Rhiannon

From ‘An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire’ by William Coxe and Richard Colt Hoare (1801).

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Dec 22, 2024
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

This end is very good, if a little overgrown at present.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

Stood upon the terrible bunker of intrusiveness.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

This aint Iron age, but it is built into the high inner bank, baaad soldiers.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

Those houses are responsible for the destruction of that part of the fort, baaad houses.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

The glittering west end, of Sudbrook fort.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

The still extant western end of the earthworks.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

Looking out through the probable entrance.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

Stood above the possible entrance looking south east along the high inner bank.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by postman

The high bank of Sudbrook fort on the right, the bridge, a church and a Peugeot. There should be external banks and ditches but they’ve all gone now in favour of back yards and playgrounds.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jan 29, 2017
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The western ramparts. Reprise of image from the Spring, showing how quickly the vegetation has shrouded the banks.

Image credit: A. Brookes (2.6.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 4, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The inner western rampart, under deep summer vegetation.

Image credit: A. Brookes (2.6.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 4, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The northern apex of the ramparts, where a small gap may be the original entrance into the fort.

Image credit: A. Brookes (2.6.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 4, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

Looking along the river shore to the western end of the fort, perched above crumbling limestone cliffs.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 11, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The stony shore on the south side of the fort. Was this once part of the fort interior?

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 11, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The outside of the NE rampart. There is no trace of an external ditch here, presumably it’s been infilled. The weird yeti-shaped lump on the far left is actually the ivy-smothered remains of Holy Trinity Church.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 11, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The southern ends of the western ramparts, possibly truncated by coastal erosion.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 11, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

Looking east across the fort interior, complete with football pitch.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 11, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

The impressive triple lines of ramparts on the northwestern side. Out of sight beyond the buildings, approx centre, is Heston Brake chambered long barrow.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 11, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by thesweetcheat

Sudbrook promontory fort on the left, overshadowed now by the New Severn Bridge.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 8, 2012
Image of Sudbrook (Cliff Fort) by Rhiannon

from ‘Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol and it’s Neighbourhood’ [sic], 1821.

Image credit: The Reverend Samuel Sayer, 1821.
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Mar 10, 2009

Articles

Since Toby Driver gives it a spotlight in his recent book I guess I really had to...

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 21, 2025

Sudbrook

C
CARL Mar 23, 2010

Park somewhere near the large red brick pumping house (you can’t miss it) and walk down the narrow lane which runs alongside it. (Don’t try to drive down the lane – too narrow). When you come around the other side of the building you will see a path which takes you straight into the cliff fort. This is the only prehistoric site I have been to with a football pitch / goals in the middle of it!! Great views of the Severn Bridge.

Folklore

Sudbrook
Cliff Fort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 30, 2017

The Camp At Portskewett.
(From a Correspondent).

[...] Thanks to the members of the corps – about 20 in number – who, under the command of Captain Williams, proceeded to the camp on Saturday last, a sufficient number of tents had been pitched for our accommodation before our arrival en masse on Monday.

[...] There is nothing which indicates the whereabouts of the “soldiery” until one is as it were in the midst of them. The tents are completely hidden from view by the high ramparts which extend from the north-east to the south. The piece of ground enclosed within the ramparts is of a triangular form, the eastern line being formed by the waters of the Severn. Coming suddenly into a deep moat without the ramparts, one is as suddenly confronted by a sentry, marching with a soldier-like air, a guard-room, or rather a guard tent, and a number of the guard lounging about.

Immediately in front of the guard tent, there is a gap, cut right in the angle of the encampment, and looking through this the whole of the tents and their occupants within are at once visible, presenting to the visitor a lively and picturesque scene, of which, two minutes before, he could have had no perception.

[...] The weather has been glorious throughout the week, but the heat, which would be exceedingly oppressive in town, is rendered delightful here, with a stiff fresh breeze flowing across the water. Each day the men have worked and drilled with a subordination that would be creditable even to a soldier of long service, and order has been maintained night and day. Heavy gun drill has been gone into most zealously, and some good practice has been made [...]

Ghost stories are not wanting in the guard room, for one good reason. On the north-east are the ruins of an old Roman chapel known as the chapel of the Holy Trinity, and no doubt was connected with the Roman encampment. Sundry remains of the genus homo in decay have been found in this spot, although the outline of the graveyard which adjoined the chapel has been effaced. A sentry is posted in the vicinity of the old chapel, and more than one have felt a chill creep over him during the still hours; but it is unnecessary to mention the little rumours which have currency during the last couple of days.

I have forgotten to mention that the immediate vicinity of the camp is called Sudbrook, and also that the advantages of the spot were utilised as a place to land, conceal, and protect his soldiers by Oliver Cromwell before he stormed Caldicott Castle. The place is in the highest degree classic and historic ground, and is well worth visiting.[...]

From the Western Mail, 4th August 1871.

Folklore

Sudbrook
Cliff Fort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 9, 2011

It is almost impossible to realise the extent to which the coast-line must have altered. According to tradition, a long spit of land once ran out from Sudbrook Point in a south-westerly direction, extending as far as the Denny, a rocky islet now lying in mid-channel at a distance of over four miles from Sudbrook.

Sudbrook fort’s certainly been nibbled away at by the Severn over the years. And there’s a lot of mud about. It’s a long way though!

In the 17th C. Camden described the erosion rather elegantly: The Church whereof, called Trinity Chappell, standeth so neare the sea, that the vicinity of so tyrannous a neighbour hath spoiled it of halfe the church-yarde, as it hath done also of an old fortification lying thereby, which was compassed with a triple ditch and three rampiers, as high as an ordinary house, cast in forme of a bowe, the string wherof is the sea-cliffe.”

From AE Lawson Lowe’s article on the camp in Archaeologia Cambrensis (Jan 1886).

Miscellaneous

Sudbrook
Cliff Fort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Mar 10, 2009

This is taken from Coxe’s 1801 ‘An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire’:

To the west of the new passage inn, near the ruins of Sudbrook or Trinity Chapel, are remains of an entrenchment, which are usually supposed to be Roman; they occupy a flat surface on the edge of a perpendicular cliff, and are nearly in the form of a stretched bow, whose cord is the sea coast. The entrenchment is formed by a triple rampart of earth, and two ditches; the two exterior ramparts are low, and in many places destroyed; the interior is in greater preservation, and not less than twenty feet in height [...]

It is generally imagined that this entrenchment, in its present state, is not perfect, and that half of it has been destroyed by the sea, which has likewise carried away part of the church-yard. It is likewise by many supposed to have been a maritime fortress, erected by the Romans to cover the landing of their troops, adn their first station in Siluria; an opinion grounded on the erroneous description [as a square] of Harris, and on the discovery of a single coin struck by the city of Elaia in honour of the Emperor Severus. For notwithstanding repeated enquiries among the farmers and labourers of the vicinity, I could not learn that any coins or Roman antiquities had been found within the memory of the present generation. It has been also attributed to the British, Saxons, and Danes; but was occupied, if not constructed by Harold during his invasion of Gwent.

The ruins of a 12th century chapel lie among the ramparts to the south east, and Coxe mentions “Within the memory of several persons now living, divine service was performed therein; and a labourer whom I met on the spot, assisted forty years ago as pall-bearer, and pointed out the half of a dilapidated grave stone, under which the corpse was interred.”

Sites within 20km of Sudbrook

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.