Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited wetland area in the areas 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 actually been gradually built up over the centuries. The most considerable function of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), forming a popular ridge. This attribute was extended as a river in three stages from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices regulated the circulation of water, which was then launched to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Inevitably, the battle was shed; the harbour silted up and New Romney decreased in significance. The Rhee kept part of the old port open until the 15th century. The wall surface at Dymchurch was constructed around the exact same time; storms had actually breached the shingle obstacle, which had protected it till that time. It is a typical misconception that both these frameworks were constructed by the Romans. In 1250 and also in the adhering to years, a collection of violent storms appeared the coastal tile banks, flooding significant locations and returning it to marsh, and ruining the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water damaged the port town 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 a minimum of 1236. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and also a significant importer of wine, was transferred on greater land, with a harbour consisting of 82 wharfs. Those same storms, nonetheless, aided to accumulate more shingle: such coastlines currently left practically the entire seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, a lot of the Walland as well as Denge Marshes had actually been reclaimed 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 pipes established into the brand-new seawall, running off right into a network of dykes called in your area "sewers" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was developed to mount drainage as well as sea protections 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 transformed 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 deposited. As a result, all the initial 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) an everyday operation remains in area to counter the improving of the tile banks, making use of boats to dig up and also move the drifting tile. The Marsh came to be the residential property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, that approved the initial tenancy on the land to a guy called Baldwin, at some time between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose as well as drain versus the sea"; Baldwin's Drain (drainage ditch) remains in use. The marsh has actually because become covered by a thick network of water drainage ditches and once supported big farming communities. These watercourses are kept as well as handled 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 established than many various other locations in Kent and Sussex. The decline in sheep prices indicated that also the regional supply (sold all over the world for reproducing for over 2 centuries) came to be unsustainable. Turfing had always been a lower technique due to the meadow maintained brief by the sheep raised upon it, yet ranches are raising in dimension to compensate for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable due to the damage to soil ecology of the Marsh. The only various other alternative, given that 1946, has been for farmers to look to arable farming, transforming the landscape from a patchwork of tiny family ranches to a couple of considerable cultivatable production systems.