Description of the Severn. antiquaries have questioned whether it were a British, Roman, or even Danish camp, but a careful consideration leaves no possibility of doubt that it was a Roman camp.
The two sides that remain are at right angles to each other, and the camp was probably a square, two sides facing to the river, and the other two to the land.
In the ditch of the camp was built, in early Norman times, a small church, the ruins of which are now known as Sudbrook Chapel, Sudbrook having been a parish itself up to about 200 years ago, when the population having almost entirely deserted it, it was joined to the neighbouring parish of Portskewett.
The point chosen for commencing the works of the Severn Tunnel is within about 100 yards of this Roman camp, on the north side of it.
To the south of the camp the inroads of the sea have made marked progress during the last century.
More than 2 miles from the shore is a small island, known as ‘The Denny,’ on which it is reported that, within a hundred years, a fox, followed from the mainland, was killed. It is still possible, at low water of the spring-tides, to walk to the Denny and return in the same tide, but the journey is not unattended with danger.
Opposite the Roman camp, at a distance of about 5 miles, are the new docks at Avonmouth, and the King’s Road, where ships, waiting to enter Portishead or Avonmouth or Bristol docks, lie at anchor.
