Romney Marsh Geography

Posted by admin on December 23, 2011

The Romney Marshes are situated in the South East corner of England, covering an area of approximately 100 square miles and includes the third largest coast wetland in Europe. They compromise Romney Marsh itself, Walland Marsh and Denge Marsh.

The Marshes are bordered by the English Channel to the South while ancient sea-cliffs – providing a visible backdrop to much of the Marshes – mark a northern border with the rest of England and shows the original coast line at the end of the last Ice Age – approx. 10,000 years ago. Then, rivers flowed off the Weald into a marine bay. Over time islands formed in the bay while a shingle bank formed across it providing a natural sea-wall, followed by silt and sand deposits. About 5,000 years ago, sea-level stabilized and the area changed to a series of lagoons, sand pits and salt plains.

In the last few thousand years, further islands formed and the lagoons and pools silted up leaving just the largest rivers flowing through to the Channel. In the last thousand years, man established villages and buildings on the most solid islands – providing foundations for the largest of the many Churches on the Marshes – and actively managed the landscape through the embankment, digging of drainage ditches and water causeways.

Around the 9th Century, sea-levels began to drop and the Romney Marshes and inland areas developed into their current form. This process considerably aided by local landowners reclaiming land, digging ditches, draining large areas and building coastal defenses such as the Dymchurch Wall.

Flood defenses, walls and canals

Although man made features, the various man-made storm walls and canals crossing the Marshes have drained parts and protected others to such an extent they have shaped both the geography and geology of the Marshes. The most notable of these being:

• Rhee Wall: Built around the 13th century, and not as widely believed to be Roman, the Rhee Wall was built in a desperate attempt to keep the ports of Old and new Romney open. The “wall” was in reality a huge water-way, designed to carry water down across the Marsh to the ports to flush out the silting.
• The Great Wall: Reaching down from Appledore to just above New Romney, the Great Wall is a mound of soil designed to prevent flood waters washing up across Walland Marsh from Rye, Camber and Dungeness from destroying Romney Marsh.
• The North Wall: Built as 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.
• Royal Military Canal: Built as part of the South East coastal defenese against Napolean, the cancel runs in an zig-zag arch from Hythe to Rye. Never needed, the Canal became a source of occasionally used transit route around the Marsh and a source of fresh water for farmers.

The Great Storm of 1287AD

Such defenses weren’t always successful however, with a series of huge coastal storms in the late 13th and early 14th century changing the course of River Rother and reforming the area and shape of the Marsh countless times resulting in the current unique geological formation of layered silts, sands, clays and flint and the largest Shingle foreland in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Notable storms in 1236, 1250, 1334 and particularly that of 1287 resulted in River Rother – at this time flowing out to the channel via the ports of New Romney (then a large and successful port) and Lydd (a smaller but then still active port) – finding its exit to the Channel blocked and forcing it to seek new routes. The result was vast devastation to New Romney; flooding of much of the wider area giving the Romney Marshes geography seen today, the destruction of some towns (see lost villages) and the Rother  joining with the Brede and making its way out to the Channel at Rye – three miles further along the coast.

Today, the Marshes consist of large shingle banks and mud-flats backing onto wind-swept marshes, pastures and arable land crossed by ditches and rivers running up to the original cliff-line marking the start of the Weald.

This natural barrier to the rest of the Country, wide-open spaces and proximity to the sea give the area a climate distinct from the rest of Kent and Sussex (it’s several degree’s cooler) which when combined with its geological formation provides a unique ecology, home to many rare and protected animals, plants and wildlife and a character and atmosphere all of its own.

 References:

• University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Newsletter No. 5 2003 .
• The Evolution of the Barrier Beaches between Fairlight and Hythe Jill Eddison Geographical Journal, Vol. 149, No. 1 (Mar., 1983), pp. 39-53 doi:10.2307/633341
• Rye local council
• VillageNet
• University of Liverpool – Romney Marsh Rivers