Portchester Castle: from Roman Fort to Prisoner-of-War Depot

Between the end of Roman rule and the Norman Conquest of 1066 there was a Saxon settlement within the fort walls.

Medieval kings used Portchester to gather their forces before crossing the Channel. Most famously, in 1415 Henry V prepared at Portchester for the campaign in France that culminated in his victory at Agincourt.

From the 17th century until the end of the Napoleonic wars the castle served as a prisoner-of-war depot.

Although the Roman fort was built in about AD 280, there is evidence of much earlier activity around Portchester. Excavations show that activity dates to the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age (about 2.6 million to 10,000 years ago).

This Palaeolithic flint handaxe is an all-purpose tool for cutting and chopping and dates to around 500,000 years ago.

There is also archaeological evidence to suggest that there was activity here in the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age (about 9600–4000 BC). This Mesolithic knife is made from flint and is broken at one end.

Excavations uncovered this greensand axehead from the Neolithic (about 4000–2500 BC). This forms part of a composite tool. Its wooden shaft and sinew binding would have rotted into the earth, but this sturdier material survives.

Petrology, a type of scientific testing, allowed archaeologists to determine that this greenstone could have come from Cumbria. It was probably brought in from local fields or dredged from the harbour with the flint used as building material for the Roman walls.

This skull is of a man who was at least 59 years old when he died. He was buried in the Saxon cemetery at Portchester. The skull shows signs of Paget’s disease, which replaces healthy bone with much thicker, weaker bone.

As well as human remains, food waste such as these burnt hazelnut shells survives from the Saxon period. This shows that the inhabitants were using local wild resources.

This medieval finger ring has a very high gold content. It is simply decorated with incised patterning and appears to be completely unworn.

There are also many post-medieval finds from Portchester. This is a Cross of Lorraine, consisting of one vertical and two evenly spaced horizontal bars.

It is a heraldic cross used by the Dukes of Lorraine (previously known as the Dukes of Anjou). This example was found in the inner bailey and is probably 18th-century.

The castle was used as a prison during all the major wars of the 18th century. During the War of Austrian Succession (1740–48) Portchester housed around 2,500 prisoners – about a quarter of all the prisoners of war in Britain.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, Portchester Castle was one of 12 main prisoner-of-war depots in Britain. Prisoners came from across the world, not just from France. This was a global conflict.

Despite being prisoners of war, those held at Portchester were allowed to practise crafts such as bone carving, making objects that they could sell to the public at a daily market within the castle.

These buttons were made by prisoners from animal bone. They are of a typical 18th-century design – the central puncture is surrounded by three perforations. A loop of metal would have been threaded through the hole to form a shank.

The prisoners were also allowed to take part in other activities, such as drawing and fencing.

This detail is from a document created at Portchester and awarded as a diploma of mastery in fencing to a prisoner, Louis Theodore Mangeon, a corporal in the Garde de Paris.

Games were a popular way for prisoners to pass the time. These dice are some of many found at Portchester, dating from the mid-17th to 19th centuries.

Another game played by the prisoners was jackstraws. The premise of the game was to take your bone picker and use it to hook sticks from a pile one at a time without disturbing the rest.

A more familiar game, which was introduced to Britain by French prisoners of war, was dominoes. Boxed set of dominoes like this one were sold at the prisoners’ markets.

Card games were also popular. These bone playing cards made by prisoners of war have been hand-inked and are intricately decorated.

A pack of playing cards would have been liable for stamp duty, costing sixpence (2½p) per pack in 1711. By 1804, stamp duty had increased to 17 shillings and 6 pence (87½p). Money raised from stamp duty would have helped to pay for the war effort. The inks used on these cards could be easily wiped off, which may have been a means of avoiding stamp duty.

The prisoners included a group of about 2,500 mainly black and mixed-race prisoners, who were brought to the castle from the Caribbean in 1796.