Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated marsh location in the areas of Kent and also East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers regarding 100 square miles (260 km2). An electoral ward in the exact same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census. The Romney Marsh has actually been progressively accumulated over the centuries. One of the most considerable feature of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), creating a noticeable ridge. This feature was prolonged as a river in three phases from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices controlled the flow of water, which was after that released to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Inevitably, the fight was shed; the harbour silted up and New Romney decreased in importance. The Rhee kept part of the old port open till the 15th century. The wall at Dymchurch was constructed around the exact same time; storms had breached the shingle barrier, which had actually safeguarded it up until that time. It is a common mistaken belief that both these frameworks were constructed by the Romans. In 1250 as well as in the complying with years, a collection of storms broke through the seaside shingle financial institutions, flooding significant areas as well as returning it to marsh, as well as damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water damaged the port town of Old Winchelsea (now found some 2 mi (3 kilometres) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea given that a minimum of 1236. Winchelsea, the 3rd biggest port in England as well as a significant importer of a glass of wine, was relocated on higher land, with a harbour consisting of 82 docks. Those exact same storms, nevertheless, assisted to develop more shingle: such beaches currently left almost the entire seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, much of the Walland and Denge Marshes had been redeemed by "innings", the process of regurgitating an embankment around the sea-marsh and utilizing the low-tide to let it run dry by means of one-way drains pipes established right into the brand-new seawall, running into a network of dykes called locally "sewers" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was developed to set up water drainage as well as sea protections for the marsh, which it continued to develop into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the training course of the Rother had actually been changed to its channel today; the majority of the rest of the area had actually currently been redeemed 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 added to: although (especially near Dungeness and also Hythe) a day-to-day operation is in area to counter the improving of the roof shingles banks, making use of boats to dig up and also relocate the drifting shingle. The Marsh ended up being the property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who granted the first occupancy on the land to a guy called Baldwin, at some point in between 1152 and 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose and drain versus the sea"; Baldwin's Sewage system (drain ditch) continues to be being used. The marsh has because come to be covered by a thick network of drainage ditches and also once sustained large farming neighborhoods. These gutters are kept and also handled for lasting 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 lots of other locations in Kent and also Sussex. The decline in sheep costs implied that even the neighborhood supply (sold around the globe for breeding for over two centuries) ended up being unsustainable. Turfing had actually constantly been a lower method as a result of the grassland kept short by the lamb raised upon it, yet ranches are enhancing in dimension to make up for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable because of the damage to dirt ecology of the Marsh. The only various other option, considering that 1946, has been for farmers to turn to cultivable farming, altering the landscape from a patchwork of tiny household farms to a couple of substantial cultivatable production units.