Romney Marsh is a sparsely booming wetland location in the areas of Kent as well as East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers concerning 100 square miles (260 km2). A selecting ward in the very same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census. The Romney Marsh has been progressively developed over the centuries. The most substantial function of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), developing a popular ridge. This attribute was prolonged as a river in three stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the circulation of water, which was after that launched to purge silt from the harbour at New Romney. Inevitably, the battle was lost; the harbour silted up and also New Romney decreased in value. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open until the 15th century. The wall surface at Dymchurch was constructed around the very same time; storms had breached the roof shingles obstacle, which had actually safeguarded it till that time. It is an usual mistaken belief that both these frameworks were built by the Romans. In 1250 and in the adhering to years, a series of violent storms appeared the seaside roof shingles financial institutions, flooding substantial locations as well as returning it to marsh, and ruining the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water damaged the port community of Old Winchelsea (currently found some 2 mi (3 kilometres) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea considering that at the very least 1236. Winchelsea, the third biggest port in England and also a significant importer of white wine, was moved on greater land, with a harbour containing 82 docks. Those exact same tornados, nevertheless, aided to develop extra roof shingles: such coastlines now ran along almost 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 regurgitating an embankment around the sea-marsh and using the low-tide to allow it run dry using one-way drains pipes established right into the brand-new seawall, running into a network of dykes called locally "drains" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to install drain and sea defences for the marsh, which it continued to develop right into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the course of the Rother had been altered to its channel today; a lot of the remainder of the area had actually currently been reclaimed from the sea. The shingle continues to be deposited. Because of this, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently much from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being contributed to: although (specifically near Dungeness as well as Hythe) a day-to-day operation remains in area to counter the reshaping of the shingle financial institutions, using boats to dredge and relocate the drifting shingle. The Marsh became the residential or commercial property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, that approved the first tenancy on the land to a guy called Baldwin, at some time between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose and drain pipes against the sea"; Baldwin's Drain (drainage ditch) remains in use. The marsh has actually since become covered by a dense network of water drainage ditches and also as soon as sustained big farming areas. These gutters are preserved and also taken care of for sustainable water levels by the Romney Marsh Area Internal Drainage Board. Romney Marsh is adjacent to the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is less established than many various other areas in Kent and also Sussex. The decrease in sheep rates meant that even the local supply (marketed around the world for reproducing for over two centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had always been a lower practice as a result of the meadow kept brief by the lamb raised upon it, but farms are boosting in size to make up for the decline in lasting livestock farming. Some sight this as unsustainable as a result of the damages to dirt ecology of the Marsh. The only various other choice, because 1946, has been for farmers to count on cultivatable farming, changing the landscape from a patchwork of small family ranches to a few extensive arable manufacturing devices.