Romney Marsh Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the county of Kent, between Hythe and Winchelsea in far south-east of England. The former coastal marsh covers about 100 square miles (260 square kilometers). Land drainage and the retreat of the sea over the last few hundred years means the land is now suitable for farming.The Marsh is famous for smuggling, sheep, its many churches, the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway and the legend of Doctor Syn.
The marsh formed in the last few thousand years as silt built up in the lagoons behind and on the shifting coastal shingle. It became the property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, who granted the first tenancy on the land to a man called Baldwin, sometime between 1152 and 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can enclose and drain against the sea"; Baldwin's Sewer (drainage ditch) remains in use. Over the following century the marsh became covered by a dense network of drainage ditches and supported large farming communities.
In 1250 and in following years, a series of violent storms broke through the coastal shingle banks, flooding significant areas and returning it to marsh, destroying the harbour at New Romney, and in 1287 finally destroying the port town of Old Winchelsea (now located some two miles out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea since at least 1236. The remainder of the marsh was largely saved by the construction of a huge bank. Winchelsea, the third largest port in England and a major importer of wine, was relocated on higher land, with a harbour consisting of 82 wharfs, although within 50 years or so the town was in decline as the sea retreated and silted up the port. In 1348 the population of the remaining marsh, like that of the rest of the country, was hit by the Black Death.
In 1462 the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to install drainage and sea defences for the marsh, which it continued to build into the 16th century. The Corporation created large fields to graze sheep, where the distinct Romney longwool sheep breed developed, now a major breed in Australia, to where they were first exported in 1872.
From 1564 the population of the marsh continued to suffer, this time as a result of malaria, then known as ague, which caused high mortality rates until the 1730s, although it remained a major problem until the completion of the Royal Military Canal in 1806, which greatly improved the drainage of the area, reduced its importance.
Throughout its history, the proximity of the marsh to the European mainland has meant that the areas has been in the front line whenever invasion has threatened, which is why the Royal Military Canal and a series of Martello towers were constructed as a defensive line during the Napoleonic wars.
The sea continues to be a threat to the marsh, especially near Dungeness and Hythe, where a daily operation is in place to counter the reshaping of the shingle banks, using boats to dredge and move the drifting shingle.
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Romney Marsh has a distinguished literary history. Many well-known writers have been associated with the area, such as Henry James, H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Radclyffe Hall, Noel Coward, Edith Nesbit, Margaret Rumer Godden, and Conrad Aiken. Three who specifically used the marsh as settings for their works were E.F. Benson, author of the Mapp and Lucia novels, Russell Thorndyke, author of the Doctor Syn novels, and the children's writer Monica Edwards, author of the Romney Marsh books in which Rye Harbour became "Westling", Rye was renamed "Dunsford" and Winchelsea was known as "Winklesea".
This is an Article on Romney Marsh. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Romney Marsh Literary Associations
Quotation
from Ingoldsby Legends, Reverend Richard Harris Barham (Rector of Snargate)See also
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