Improvement and rebuilding continued until the 14th c. Later it was equipped to meet the threats from the Spanish Armada, from Napoleon, and from Hitler in 1940, when several pillboxes were built into its walls, so cleverly that they have to be pointed out: one is in a pile of rubble where the Roman wall has collapsed.

More than half the stone walls of the Roman fort are still standing, and in some parts have been excavated to the original ground level and have heights of up to 20ft; there are also two rounded Roman bastions, restored in the 11th c. The castle is mostly in a ruinous state, but some parts, including the dungeons and the lower part of the keep, have been well preserved. The small detachments of troops garrisoned here during World War 11 quite possibly occupied rooms that were soldiers' quarters in medieval days. Tudor houses and shops adorn the litlle village of Pevensey