To anyone passing through The Romney Marshes, they look like idealic countryside or beaches but the 100 square miles, shingle and sand beaches that make up this corner of England have been home to many of England's greatest engineering projects, land reclaimation projects and flood defenses.

Extra: Cheyne Court Wind Farm - first turbines errected.

Flood Defeneses

Some of the largest, and oldest, engineering works across the Marshes are those to prevent flooding from high tides and coastal storms.

Along three miles of the coast at Dymchurch for example is a sea-wall, reportedly dating back to Roman times. This wall, in places several is upto 30 feet thick and 20 feet high, the wall has been maintained ever since. Notably, in the 1100's self-government of the region was granted by the Government in return for maintaining the sea wall; in 1250 this jurisdiction was extended with the creation of Jurat's who again were given authority in return to maintaining the sea-wall. The Dymchurch sea-wall combined with the Rhee Wall (below) to provide the two principal flood defenses and reclaimation projects for the Marshes. The importance of the wall even in protecting the Marshes is widely reconigsed with a local slogan reading "Server God: Honour the King: But first maintain the wall".

Designed and constructed in 1804 as a defense against Napoleonic invasion, the Royal Military Canal was one of the greatest engineering projects of its time. The Canal runs for 28 miles from Hythe to Rye in an arch around the top of Marsh and was designed to be 19 meters wide at the top, just over 12 meters wide at the base and 3 meters deep. Of the 28 miles, 22.5 miles had to be dugg with upto 1,500 men using picks and shovels to cut out the ditch and building a defensive ridge on Northern side from the extracted soil.

The canal was dug first by civil labour and later, when the company contracted to failed, taken over as a military project and completed by army engineers from the Royal Staff Corps.

The canal was flooded by opening a link to the River Rother in August 1806 and finally completed in the Spring of 1809 although missing the canons that were to provide a cris-cross fire-pattern along its length - these being delivered three years later.

At completion the Canal had cost a staggering £234,000 and was then heavily critised as a defensive fortication and with the defeat of Napoleon's fleet at Trafalga was never used for its primary purpose.

Running from Appledore to New Romney, the Rhee Wall is now marked by the A259 but when constructured in the 13th Century it was a water-way built to carry water across the Marsh in a desperate bid to try and flush out silt rapidly blocking up the ports of Old and New Romney. Running 7.5 miles and built of two parallel banks of earth between which water flowed, the "wall" was a massive construction for its time and was built in sections, first to Old Romney and later extended to New Romney. The Rhee wall is complemented by the smaller North Wall, a second barrier to protect Romney Marsh from flood waters flowing across from Walland Marsh, the North Wall sits behind (North and East) of The Great Wall and again runs from Appledore to New Romney.

Just North-East of the Rhee Wall is the older Rumenesea Wall, possibly the oldest sea-bank of any British coastal lowland, which provided an early defense against the sea for much of Northern Romney Marsh, indeed, land on the Southern side is now approx. two feet higher than land on the Northern side as a result of regular flooding upto the wall which deposited silt and sand on the surface.

During World War II, the top-secret Project PLUTO (pipe-line under the ocean), was devised to run a pipe-line linking oil refineries on the Hoo peninsular with invasion forces in Cherbourg, France. At its peak, the link delivered over one million gallons a day of petrol to allied forces in Europe. A pumping station was situated at Lydd and the pipe-line was constructed with help from the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch light Railway. At the time the project was a complex undertaking and impressive feat of engineering, made all the more impressive given it was devised, designed and implemented in complete secrecy.

In 1961, two cross-channel electricity cables linking the electrical grids of England and France was laid. Starting from Lydd, the cable run upto Dungeness and then under the Channel across to France where it emerged at Le Portal, running a total distance of 64Km and carrying at tranmission power upto 160MW.

The Converter Stations operated at Lydd and Echinghen, near Boulogne-sue-Mer.

The operation - HDVC Cross Channel - was finally stoped in 1984 when a higher capacity cable was laid between Sellindge and Bonningues-les-Calais (Les Mandarins station).

References:

Romney Marsh Research Trust
Royal Military Canal - Wikipedia Entry
Royal Military Canal - Site dedicated to RMC.
Wikipedia Entry on HVDC cables.
Wikiepedia Entry on HVDC Cross Channel Cable.
Programme from Dymchurch Day of Syn, August '06. August Bank Holiday holiday show held in Dymchurch and the biggest free show in Southern England.

Last update: 29-06-2008 23:24