Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited wetland area in the regions of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers regarding 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 actually been progressively developed over the centuries. The most considerable function of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), creating a noticeable ridge. This attribute was prolonged as a river in three stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices regulated the flow of water, which was then released to purge silt from the harbour at New Romney. Ultimately, the fight was lost; the harbour silted up and New Romney decreased in significance. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open until the 15th century. The wall at Dymchurch was built around the very same time; tornados had actually breached the tile obstacle, which had safeguarded it up until that time. It is a common misunderstanding that both these frameworks were developed by the Romans. In 1250 as well as in the following years, a collection of storms appeared the coastal roof shingles financial institutions, flooding significant locations as well as returning it to marsh, and damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water ruined the port community of Old Winchelsea (currently located some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea since at least 1236. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and also a significant importer of a glass of wine, was relocated on greater land, with a harbour containing 82 wharfs. Those same tornados, nonetheless, helped to develop extra shingle: such beaches currently left virtually the entire seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, much of the Walland and Denge Marshes had been redeemed by "innings", the process of regurgitating an embankment around the sea-marsh and also making use of the low-tide to let it run dry using one-way drains pipes set right into the brand-new seawall, running off into a network of dykes called locally "sewers" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to mount water drainage as well as sea protections for the marsh, which it continued to develop right into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the course of the Rother had actually been changed to its channel today; the majority of the rest of the area had actually currently been recovered from the sea. The roof shingles continues to be transferred. Consequently, all the initial Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being contributed to: although (particularly near Dungeness and Hythe) an everyday operation is in location to respond to the improving of the shingle financial institutions, making use of boats to dig up and also relocate the wandering roof shingles. The Marsh became the residential or commercial property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, that approved the very first tenancy on the land to a male called Baldwin, sometime in between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine and drain pipes versus the sea"; Baldwin's Sewer (water drainage ditch) stays in operation. The marsh has actually considering that become covered by a dense network of drainage ditches and also when supported huge farming neighborhoods. These watercourses are kept and also handled for lasting 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 much less established than several other locations in Kent as well as Sussex. The decline in lamb costs suggested that even the neighborhood stock (sold all over the world for reproducing for over 2 centuries) came to be unsustainable. Turfing had constantly been a lesser technique due to the meadow kept short by the sheep reared upon it, yet farms are enhancing in dimension to make up for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable due to the damages to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only other choice, given that 1946, has actually been for farmers to rely on cultivatable farming, altering the landscape from a patchwork of small household farms to a few extensive cultivatable production devices.