Romney Marsh

View across the marsh from Rye

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.

A map of Romney Marsh "The history of imbanking and drayning" by William Dugdale (1662).

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.

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.

View across the marsh from just outside Dymchurch

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 that once supported large farming communities. These watercourses are maintained and managed for sustainable water levels by the Romney Marsh Area Internal Drainage Board[3]

Romney Marsh is adjacent to the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is less developed than many other areas in Kent and Sussex. The decline in sheep prices meant that even the local stock (sold around the world for breeding for over two centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had always been a lesser practice due to the grassland kept short by the sheep reared upon it, but farms are increasing in size to compensate for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable due to the damage to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only other alternative, since 1946, has been for farmers to turn to arable farming, changing the landscape from a patchwork of small family farms to a few extensive arable production units.

A view along the A259 just outside Brookland, Kent

Roads across the Marsh have always been narrow and winding. This is partly because of the hundreds of sewers and smaller drainage ditches, and because the grazing land is far more important than the roads. The lack of road signs and few villages can make navigating across the marsh very confusing for outsiders. Several minor roads have no finger posts at junctions at all and at others, it is possible to find two or three lanes apparently leading to the same village.

Many of these lanes are built on the remains of enclosures used to "in" the Marsh. There is a dramatic section near Brookland, where a lane linking the Woolpack pub to Lydd is perched 2 or 3 m above the surrounding farmland, on the "Hook" wall. The section of road between Brenzett and Lydd Lane end is built on the Rhee wall, a medieval canal that brought water from higher up the river Rother.

The main road is the A259 from Rye, which is narrow and winding to Brookland and Brenzett, where it splits in two. One arm becomes the A2070 and runs parallel to the railway to link the Marsh to Hamstreet, Ashford and the wider world. The other, still the A259, is good only as far as the junction with Lydd Lane (B2075) and leads to New Romney, Dymchurch, Hythe and eventually, Folkestone.

The local bus routes on the Marsh are operated by Stagecoach in East Kent and link it to Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone, Hastings, Northiam and Tenterden.

A National Cycle Network signpost on Romney Marsh, indicating Folkestone to the left and Rye to the right

The best way to see the Marsh is on cycle: the almost flat terrain, the narrow, almost deserted lanes, make it ideal for family jaunts. National Cycle Route 2 passes through the area; the section between Rye and Lydd is mostly off-road. From Lydd to Hythe, it uses quiet lanes; from Hythe it is possible to cycle along the sea wall to Folkestone, and ultimately (off-road) to reach Dover.

The main line railway known as the Marsh Link Line is the Ashford to Hastings line, with stations at Hamstreet, Appledore, Rye, and Winchelsea. The one-time branch to New Romney from Appledore (its small offshoot to Dungeness closed in 1937) was closed to passenger traffic in 1967. It was possible to travel directly from Dungeness to London, and the 2-hr journey time was quicker than by road and rail today. The line is still in place about a mile short of Dungeness. In the early 21st century, it is used to transfer spent fuel from the nuclear power plant.

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a 15 in (381 mm)-gauge miniature railway and the only miniature railway in the British Isles ever to have been incorporated under the Light Railways Act 1896, has been operating along the Romney Marsh coast since 1927. It runs for 13.75 miles (22.13 km) from Hythe to Dungeness.[11]

The Saxon Shore Way starts at Gravesend, Kent. It traces the coast as it was in Roman times as far as Hastings, East Sussex, 163 mi (262 km) in total, crossing the Marsh.

The importance of the Cinque Ports was in their strategic location at the narrowest part of the English Channel. They were important for both trade and defence. Romney and Hythe were two of the ports within the Romney Marsh; Rye and Winchelsea were later added as “Antient Towns”. Rye replaced Romney as one of the main five when Romney's port was silted in.

The Royal Military Canal stretches for 28 miles hugging the old cliff line that borders the Romney Marsh from Hythe in the north east to Cliff End in the south west. It was conceived by Lt-Col Brown of the Royal Staff Corps of field engineers in 1804, the time of the Napoleonic Wars, as a way to ensure that an invasion by the French could not use the marsh as a bridgehead. John Rennie acted as consultant engineer, and the work was completed in April 1809. A military road was built on the inland side of the canal, which consisted of two parts, joined by sections of the River Rother and the River Brede.[12]

Martello towers are fortifications that were built by the British Army for coastal defence during the early nineteenth century and the Napoleonic Wars. Seventy-four towers were built along the south coast; Tower 1 was at Folkestone, overlooking the harbour, and Tower 74 guarded the beach at Seaford in East Sussex. Six were built in pairs in Dymchurch to protect the Romney Marsh sluices from potential invading French forces. One of these, Martello Tower No. 24 is closest to its original condition, and has its cannon. It is open to the public during the summer months. The towers were built between 1805 and 1808, when Napoleon was a threat.[13]

Prior to World War II, experiments to detect enemy aircraft with huge concrete acoustic mirrors were conducted at Greatstone. The large concrete mirrors were built between 1928 and 1930 as an early warning system in case of approaching German aircraft.[14]

These experiments had variable success but the technology very quickly became obsolete with the invention of radar.

Germany's Operation Sea Lion plan included crossing the flat marsh during an invasion across the English Channel. The government planned to flood the area to prevent troops and equipment from crossing the area. Thousands of concrete pillboxes were built in Kent; 6,500 of the crumbling structures remain standing to this day. The ancient Royal Military Canal was well guarded with troops, pillboxes and barbed wire. Training was provided in the area for the secret Auxiliary Units, men who would be deployed in case of an invasion. Four Advanced Landing Ground airstrips were built on Romney Marsh in 1942, for use by fighters and light bombers; these were used for flights in 1944 against the German Flying bombs.[15]

The miniature Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was used by the government to run armoured trains during construction of Operation Pluto, known as the Pipe Line Under The Ocean. It was to pass under the English Channel, and was intended to supply fuel to the Allied forces that would be involved in Operation Overlord (the 1944 invasion of Normandy).[14]

There are two military establishments on the Marsh: the Hythe and Lydd Ranges. The latter has a large danger area marked on maps south of Lydd towards the sea. The Metropolitan Police also have a substantial facility just outside Lydd, where a mock urban 'townscape' complete with full-size houses, streets, etc., provides an appropriate environment for counter-terrorism and civil disorder training.