It is usually accepted that the Saxon Shore extended from the mouth of the Itchen or the Porchester Roman fort on the Solent to Lincolnshire.

This coast is defended by a series of forts known as the Saxon shore forts. The forts may mark the extent of the military command exercised by the comes litoris Saxonici. saxonshoreforts (53K) If so, the shore north to Hadrian's frontier will have fallen under the responsibility of the military commander at York. Although built at various dates, the forts are obviously a unified defensive system that included at least two forts (Boulogne and Oudenberg) on the opposite side of the Channel. Garrisons were provided by regular military units. Mounted auxiliaries are recorded at several of the forts. Saxon settlements dating from the late Roman period are found behind these forts, and in close association with the towns in the immediate hinterland. Perhaps it was the presence of these settlers that gave the shore its name.

Absence of any defence "in depth" behind the immediate shore zone hints that these settlements were not seen as a threat.

Were these Saxon allies settled behind the fort line to deter more dangerous barbarians pressing, in their turn, down the Friesian-Dutch littoral? What role did these early Saxons play in the taking of Britain? Why did Britannia became England, "the land of the Angles" and not "the land of the Saxons"?

From Lincolnshire south to the forests that divided Suffolk from Essex, Anglian remains swamp the traces of the earlier Saxon settlers.

This could indicate that once Roman military organisation ceased to deliver an effective defence, Anglian peoples moved in large numbers to the eastern and north-eastern coastal regions. Here they rapidly established prototype kingdoms. Those whose names we know, the North Folk and the South Folk of the East Angles, the Middle Angles, and the Lindeswares of Lincolnshire are surely out numbered by those whose names are lost.

South and inland of the Anglian kingdoms Saxons and Jutes, certainly reinforced by new comers, resisted Anglian domination.

Linear dikes, to be seen in Cambridgeshire, defend against an enemy pressing south-west from the coast. The Roman roads leading north from Camulodunum (near Colchester) to Venta Icenorum (Caistor by Norwich) were cut and fell out of use. For some, even their line is lost. South of the "Saxon line" Roman things are remembered. Londinio, Regulbium, Dubris, Lemanis are not hard to find on the modern map. The road system in Kent and between London and the south coast remained in use.

Londinio = London
Regulbium = Reculver
Dubris = Dover
Lemanis = Lympne