Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited marsh area in the areas of Kent and also East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 square miles (260 km2). A selecting ward in the exact same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census. The Romney Marsh has been progressively developed over the centuries. One of the most considerable attribute of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), creating a famous ridge. This function was prolonged 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 released to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Eventually, the battle was shed; the harbour silted up and also New Romney decreased in value. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open up until the 15th century. The wall at Dymchurch was developed around the same time; tornados had breached the roof shingles obstacle, which had actually safeguarded it till that time. It is a typical mistaken belief that both these structures were constructed by the Romans. In 1250 as well as in the complying with years, a collection of violent storms broke through the seaside tile banks, flooding considerable locations and also returning it to marsh, as well as damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water damaged the port town of Old Winchelsea (now situated some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had actually been under threat from the sea because at least 1236. Winchelsea, the 3rd biggest port in England as well as a significant importer of white wine, was transferred on higher land, with a harbour including 82 docks. Those same storms, nonetheless, aided to build up more tile: such coastlines now ran along almost the whole seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, much of the Walland and also Denge Marshes had actually been reclaimed by "innings", the procedure of vomitting an embankment around the sea-marsh and utilizing the low-tide to let it run dry using one-way drains pipes set into the brand-new seawall, running off into a network of dykes called locally "sewage systems" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was developed to install drain and sea protections for the marsh, which it remained to build into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the training course of the Rother had actually been altered to its channel today; a lot of the remainder of the area had now been recovered from the sea. The roof shingles remains to be transferred. Therefore, 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 Hythe) a day-to-day procedure remains in location to respond to the reshaping of the tile banks, making use of watercrafts to dredge and relocate the drifting roof shingles. The Marsh became the residential or commercial property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who gave the initial occupancy on the land to a guy called Baldwin, sometime between 1152 as well as 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine and also drain pipes against the sea"; Baldwin's Sewage system (water drainage ditch) remains in operation. The marsh has actually because become covered by a dense network of drainage ditches as well as when sustained large 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 other areas in Kent and Sussex. The decrease in sheep prices suggested that even the local stock (offered all over the world for breeding for over two centuries) became unsustainable. Turfing had actually always been a lesser method because of the grassland kept brief by the lamb raised upon it, yet farms are increasing in size to make up for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some sight this as unsustainable because of the damage to dirt ecology of the Marsh. The only various other alternative, given that 1946, has actually been for farmers to resort to cultivatable farming, changing the landscape from a jumble of tiny family members ranches to a few considerable cultivable production units.