Romney Marsh
| Romney Marsh | |
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St Mary in the Marsh in Romney Marsh
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 Romney Marsh
 Romney Marsh shown within Kent |
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| OS grid reference | TR053224 |
| Coordinates | 50°57′51″N 0°55′29″E / 50.96417°N 0.92463°ECoordinates: 50°57′51″N 0°55′29″E / 50.96417°N 0.92463°E |
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 square miles (260 km2).
An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census.
Romney Marsh is flat and low-lying, with parts below sea-level. It consists of several areas:
The River Rother today flows into the sea below Rye; but until 1287 its mouth lay between Romney and Lydd. It was tidal far upstream, almost to Bodiam. The river mouth was wide with a huge lagoon, making Rye a port at its western end. That lagoon lay behind a large island, which now makes up a large part of the Denge Marsh, on which stood the ports of Lydd and the old Winchelsea. All these ports were affiliated to (as "limbs" of) the Cinque Ports.
The Romney Marsh has been gradually built up over the centuries.
The most significant feature of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), forming a prominent ridge. This feature was extended as a waterway in three stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the flow of water, which was then released to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Ultimately, the battle was lost; the harbour silted up and New Romney declined in importance. The Rhee kept part of the old port open until the 15th century.
The wall at Dymchurch was built around the same time; storms had breached the shingle barrier, which had protected it until that time. It is a common misconception that both these structures were built by the Romans.
Those same storms, however, helped to build up more shingle: such beaches now ran along practically the whole seaward side of the marshland.
The Marsh became the property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who granted the first tenancy on the land to a man called Baldwin, sometime between 1152 and 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose and drain against the sea"; Baldwin's Sewer (drainage ditch) remains in use. The marsh has since become covered by a dense network of drainage ditches and once supported large farming communities. These watercourses are maintained and managed for sustainable water levels by the Romney Marsh Area Internal Drainage Board
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Wikipedia