Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited marsh area in the counties of Kent and also 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 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 popular ridge. This feature was expanded as a waterway in 3 stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the circulation of water, which was after that launched to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Eventually, the fight was lost; the harbour silted up and New Romney declined in value. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open till the 15th century. The wall at Dymchurch was developed around the same time; tornados had breached the shingle obstacle, which had actually safeguarded it till that time. It is an usual misconception that both these structures were constructed by the Romans. In 1250 and also in the adhering to years, a series of storms broke through the seaside roof shingles banks, swamping significant areas and also returning it to marsh, and also damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water destroyed the port community of Old Winchelsea (currently found some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea considering that at least 1236. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and a significant importer of wine, was relocated on greater land, with a harbour consisting of 82 jetties. Those very same tornados, nevertheless, aided to build up a lot more roof shingles: such coastlines currently ran along practically the whole 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 throwing up an embankment around the sea-marsh and utilizing the low-tide to allow it run dry through one-way drains established right into the new seawall, running right into a network of dykes called locally "sewers" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was developed to mount drain and sea supports 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 area had actually now been redeemed from the sea. The roof shingles continues to be transferred. Therefore, all the initial Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being included in: although (especially near Dungeness as well as Hythe) a daily procedure remains in area to counter the improving of the roof shingles banks, using watercrafts to dredge and move the drifting roof shingles. The Marsh became the residential or commercial property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who granted the initial occupancy on the land to a man called Baldwin, at some time between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine as well as drain versus the sea"; Baldwin's Drain (drain ditch) remains in use. The marsh has actually since become covered by a dense network of drainage ditches and also once sustained huge farming communities. These gutters are preserved and managed for sustainable 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 developed than many other locations in Kent as well as Sussex. The decline in sheep rates indicated that even the regional stock (offered worldwide for breeding for over two centuries) ended up being unsustainable. Turfing had actually always been a lesser technique due to the grassland kept brief by the sheep raised upon it, however ranches are enhancing in dimension to make up for the decline in lasting livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable because of the damages to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only various other option, because 1946, has been for farmers to look to cultivatable farming, changing the landscape from a jumble of small household farms to a few considerable cultivatable production systems.