Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited marsh location in the regions of Kent and also 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 progressively accumulated over the centuries. The most significant attribute of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), creating a prominent ridge. This attribute was extended as a waterway in 3 stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices regulated the circulation of water, which was then launched to purge silt from the harbour at New Romney. Ultimately, the fight was lost; the harbour silted up and New Romney decreased in value. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open until the 15th century. The wall surface at Dymchurch was developed around the same time; storms had actually breached the shingle barrier, which had safeguarded it till that time. It is a typical misconception that both these frameworks were constructed by the Romans. In 1250 and in the adhering to years, a collection of storms appeared the coastal roof shingles financial institutions, swamping substantial locations and also returning it to marsh, and also ruining the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water ruined the port town of Old Winchelsea (now located some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea given that a minimum of 1236. Winchelsea, the 3rd largest port in England and a major importer of white wine, was moved on greater land, with a harbour containing 82 jetties. Those exact same tornados, nonetheless, helped to develop a lot more tile: such coastlines currently left almost the whole seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, much of the Walland and also Denge Marshes had actually been recovered by "innings", the process of regurgitating an embankment around the sea-marsh as well as utilizing the low-tide to let it run dry using one-way drains pipes set into the new seawall, running into a network of dykes called locally "drains" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to install drainage and also sea defences for the marsh, which it remained to build into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the training course of the Rother had been altered to its channel today; a lot of the rest of the location had currently been recovered from the sea. The shingle continues to be deposited. As a result, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are now far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being contributed to: although (especially near Dungeness and also Hythe) a daily procedure is in area to counter the improving of the tile banks, making use of watercrafts to dredge as well as relocate the drifting tile. The Marsh ended up being the residential property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who provided the first occupancy on the land to a man called Baldwin, sometime in between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine and also drain against the sea"; Baldwin's Drain (water drainage ditch) stays being used. The marsh has actually because come to be covered by a thick network of drain ditches as well as as soon as supported large farming areas. These watercourses are kept as well as 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 less established than numerous other locations in Kent as well as Sussex. The decline in sheep rates indicated that also the regional supply (sold around the world for breeding for over 2 centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had actually constantly been a lower method as a result of the grassland maintained short by the lamb raised upon it, yet farms are enhancing in dimension to make up for the decline in lasting livestock farming. Some sight this as unsustainable as a result of the damage to dirt ecology of the Marsh. The only various other option, because 1946, has actually been for farmers to count on cultivable farming, altering the landscape from a patchwork of small family ranches to a few considerable cultivatable manufacturing units.