Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited wetland location in the regions of Kent and also East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers concerning 100 square miles (260 km2). A selecting ward in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census. The Romney Marsh has been progressively built up over the centuries. The most considerable feature of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), forming a famous ridge. This attribute was prolonged as a river in three stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the flow of water, which was then launched to purge silt from the harbour at New Romney. Inevitably, the fight was shed; the harbour silted up and New Romney declined in relevance. The Rhee kept part of the old port open until the 15th century. The wall surface at Dymchurch was constructed around the very same time; tornados had breached the roof shingles obstacle, which had actually safeguarded it up until that time. It is a common mistaken belief that both these frameworks were developed by the Romans. In 1250 and also in the following years, a collection of violent storms appeared the seaside shingle banks, flooding substantial locations as well as returning it to marsh, and destroying the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water damaged the port community of Old Winchelsea (currently situated some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had actually been under threat from the sea given that at the very least 1236. Winchelsea, the third biggest port in England and a major importer of white wine, was transferred on higher land, with a harbour including 82 docks. Those exact same storms, nevertheless, helped to develop a lot more tile: such coastlines now ran along virtually the entire seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, much of the Walland as well as Denge Marshes had actually been reclaimed by "innings", the procedure of vomitting an embankment around the sea-marsh and also utilizing the low-tide to allow it run dry using one-way drains pipes set right into the brand-new seawall, running right into a network of dykes called locally "sewage systems" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to set up drain and also sea protections for the marsh, which it continued to construct into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the program of the Rother had been altered to its network today; a lot of the rest of the location had actually now been redeemed from the sea. The roof shingles remains to be deposited. Therefore, all the initial Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently much from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being added to: although (particularly near Dungeness and Hythe) a day-to-day operation remains in location to counter the improving of the shingle financial institutions, using watercrafts to dredge and relocate the wandering roof shingles. The Marsh came to be the residential or commercial property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, that provided the very first occupancy on the land to a male called Baldwin, at some point in between 1152 and 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine and drain pipes against the sea"; Baldwin's Sewer (drain ditch) stays being used. The marsh has because come to be covered by a thick network of drain ditches and also once sustained big farming neighborhoods. These watercourses are kept as well as 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 developed than many various other locations in Kent and Sussex. The decline in lamb costs implied that even the neighborhood supply (sold all over the world for reproducing for over 2 centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had actually constantly been a lesser technique due to the meadow maintained brief by the sheep raised upon it, yet farms are raising in dimension to compensate for the decline in lasting livestock farming. Some sight this as unsustainable because of the damage to dirt ecology of the Marsh. The only other option, since 1946, has been for farmers to resort to cultivatable farming, altering the landscape from a patchwork of small family members ranches to a couple of extensive arable production devices.