Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and 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 slowly 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 function 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 released to purge silt from the harbour at New Romney. Inevitably, the fight was lost; the harbour silted up as well as New Romney decreased in significance. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open until the 15th century. The wall at Dymchurch was developed around the very same time; storms had breached the roof shingles obstacle, which had actually safeguarded it till that time. It is a typical misunderstanding that both these frameworks were constructed by the Romans. In 1250 as well as in the adhering to years, a collection of storms appeared the coastal tile banks, swamping considerable locations and returning it to marsh, as well as damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water damaged the port town of Old Winchelsea (currently located some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea given that at the very least 1236. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and a significant importer of red wine, was relocated on greater land, with a harbour consisting of 82 docks. Those exact same storms, nonetheless, assisted to build up much more roof shingles: such coastlines currently 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 actually been redeemed by "innings", the process of throwing up an embankment around the sea-marsh as well as making use of the low-tide to let it run dry using one-way drains established into the new seawall, running off right into a network of dykes called in your area "drains" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to set up drainage and also sea protections for the marsh, which it continued to build right into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the training course of the Rother had actually been changed to its network today; most of the rest of the location had actually now been recovered from the sea. The roof shingles continues to be transferred. Therefore, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being contributed to: although (particularly near Dungeness as well as Hythe) a daily operation is in place to counter the reshaping of the roof shingles banks, using watercrafts 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 granted the initial occupancy on the land to a man called Baldwin, sometime in between 1152 and 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine as well as drain pipes versus the sea"; Baldwin's Sewage system (drain ditch) continues to be in use. The marsh has considering that come to be covered by a thick network of drainage ditches as well as as soon as sustained huge farming neighborhoods. These watercourses are preserved 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 less established than lots of various other areas in Kent and Sussex. The decline in sheep rates implied that even the neighborhood supply (marketed around the globe for breeding for over two centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had actually constantly been a minimal technique as a result of the meadow kept brief by the sheep reared upon it, however farms are increasing in dimension to compensate for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some sight this as unsustainable as a result of the damage to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only various other alternative, because 1946, has actually been for farmers to turn to cultivable farming, changing the landscape from a patchwork of tiny household ranches to a couple of substantial arable manufacturing devices.