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 . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the 18th century. Due to its location, geography and isolation, it was a smuggler's paradise between the 1600s and 1800s. The area has long been used for sheep pasture: Romney Marsh sheep are considered one of the most successful and important sheep breeds. Criss-crossed with numerous waterways, and with some areas lying below sea level, the Marsh has over time sustained a gradual level of reclamation, both through natural causes and by human intervention.
Governance
An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census.
Quotations
“As Egypt was the gift of the Nile, this level tract ... has by the bounty of the sea been by degrees added to the land, so that I may not without reason call it the Gift of the Sea." (from Britannia by William Camden 1551–1623) "The world according to the best geographers is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Romney Marsh" from Ingoldsby Legends, Reverend Richard Harris Barham (Rector of Snargate)
Areas of Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is flat and low-lying, with parts below sea level. It consists of several areas: the Romney Marsh proper, lying north of a line between New Romney and Appledore; the Walland Marsh, south of that line to approximately the Kent/East Sussex border; the East Guldeford Level, south again to Rye; the Denge Marsh, south-east of Lydd, which now includes Denge Beach and Dungeness; the Rother Levels, which, with various ditches, lie around the Isle of Oxney; and the Rye, Winchelsea and Pett Levels.
River Rother
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.
Reclamation
The Romney Marsh has been gradually built up over the centuries.
Rhee Wall
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.
Shingle
In 1250 and in the following years, a series of violent storms broke through the coastal shingle banks, flooding significant areas and returning it to marsh, and destroying the harbour at New Romney. In 1287, water destroyed the port town of Old Winchelsea (now located some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been endangered because of its proximity to the sea since at least 1236. Winchelsea, the third-largest port in England and a major importer of wine, was relocated on higher land, with a harbour consisting of 82 wharfs. Those same storms, however, helped to build up more shingle; such beaches now ran along practically the whole seaward side of the marshland.
By the 14th century, much of the Walland and Denge Marshes had been reclaimed by "innings", the process of throwing up an embankment around the sea-marsh and using the low-tide to let it run dry by means of one-way drains set into the new seawall, running off into a network of dykes called locally "sewers". In 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to install drainage and sea defences for the marsh, which it continued to build into the 16th century. By that time, the course of the Rother had been changed to its channel today; most of the remainder of the area had now been reclaimed from the sea.
Today, shingle continues to be deposited in the harbour. As a result, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are now far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being added to (especially near Dungeness and Hythe), though a daily operation is in place to counter the reshaping of the shingle banks, using boats to dredge and move the drifting shingle.
