Oysters from the "Rutupian shore" – the shoreline around Richborough, a little over 8 miles to the south-east – were noted as a delicacy by the 1st–2nd-century Roman poet Juvenal, and in 1576 oysters from Reculver itself were "reputed as farre to passe those of Whitstaple, as Whitstaple doe surmount the rest of this shyre [of Kent] in savorie saltnesse."