Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated marsh area in the regions of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers concerning 100 square miles (260 km2). An electoral ward in the very same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census. The Romney Marsh has been slowly built up over the centuries. One of the most significant attribute of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), forming a noticeable ridge. This feature was prolonged as a waterway in 3 phases from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the circulation of water, which was then launched to purge silt from the harbour at New Romney. Ultimately, the battle was shed; the harbour silted up as well as New Romney decreased in value. The Rhee kept part of the old port open up until the 15th century. The wall surface at Dymchurch was constructed around the very same time; storms had breached the shingle obstacle, which had secured it until that time. It is a common misunderstanding that both these structures were built by the Romans. In 1250 and in the adhering to years, a collection of violent storms appeared the seaside shingle financial institutions, swamping considerable locations and also returning it to marsh, and damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water ruined the port town of Old Winchelsea (now situated some 2 mi (3 kilometres) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea given that at least 1236. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and also a major importer of white wine, was relocated on greater land, with a harbour containing 82 docks. Those very same tornados, nonetheless, assisted to develop a lot more shingle: such coastlines now ran along virtually the entire seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, a lot of the Walland as well as Denge Marshes had been recovered by "innings", the procedure of vomitting an embankment around the sea-marsh and using the low-tide to allow it run dry by means of one-way drains pipes set right into the brand-new seawall, running right into a network of dykes called locally "drains" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was developed to install drain as well as sea supports for the marsh, which it continued to construct right into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the training course of the Rother had actually been altered to its channel today; a lot of the rest of the area had actually currently been redeemed from the sea. The tile remains to be deposited. As a result, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently much from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being added to: although (especially near Dungeness and also Hythe) an everyday procedure is in place to counter the reshaping of the shingle financial institutions, using boats to dredge and move the wandering shingle. The Marsh became the residential property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, that gave the initial occupancy on the land to a male called Baldwin, at some time between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose and also drain versus the sea"; Baldwin's Drain (drainage ditch) continues to be being used. The marsh has given that become covered by a thick network of drain ditches as well as when sustained huge farming neighborhoods. These gutters are maintained and managed for sustainable water levels by the Romney Marsh Area Internal Drainage Board. Romney Marsh adjoins the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is much less developed than several other locations in Kent and Sussex. The decline in lamb rates indicated that also the regional supply (sold around the world for breeding for over 2 centuries) ended up being unsustainable. Turfing had actually always been a lower method as a result of the meadow maintained short by the sheep raised upon it, however ranches are enhancing in size to compensate for the decrease in sustainable livestock farming. Some sight this as unsustainable due to the damages to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only various other choice, considering that 1946, has been for farmers to turn to arable farming, transforming the landscape from a jumble of little household ranches to a few comprehensive cultivable production systems.