Romney Marsh

The Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated marshland in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the South East of England and about 260 km ². The Romney Marsh is a unique area with flat, open landscape.

The landscape of Romney Marsh

The Romney Marsh consists of lowlands, partly below sea level. The landscape shows different characteristics:

The actual Romney Marsh lies north of a line running from New Romney after Appledore.
Walland Marsh, the lies south of this line to the border between Kent and East Sussex
While the East Guldeford level in turn spreads south to Rye
The Denge -Marsch, southeast of Lydd, and includes the beach of Denge and the headland of Dungeness
The Rother plane is crossed by drainage ditches to the former island of Oxney, which forms a hill in the countryside today. On a neighboring hill is the town of Rye. This, together with the cities of Pett and Winchelsea the centers of today's settlement in this part of Romney Marsh.

The River Rother

The River Rother flows into the bay at Rye today; to 1287 its mouth lay still between Romney and Lydd. The tide had a far from upstream to Bodiam. The river delta was wide, a fact which made the town of Rye, a port city. In front of the river delta was a large island, which constitutes today a part of the Denge - marsh, in the ports of the city of Lydd and Winchelsea are. The port cities named were members of the Cinque Port Confederation.

Reclamation of the landscape

The landscape of Romney Marsh formed by man in the course of centuries.

The most far-reaching intervention in the reclamation of the marshlands is the Rhee - dam, which has a significant dam line. The English word Rhee is synonymous with the word river (river). The construction was carried out in the 13th century in three stages from Appledore to New Romney, the river to the road was expanded.

The water level was controlled by sluices, at the same time had this task to flush the silt from the Port of New Romney. The latter project failed but why the harbor silted up, which meant that New Romney declined in importance, while the Rhee a part of the old harbor seized.

The wall at Dymchurch was piled up in the same time, after storms had knocked a breach in the shingle beach, which had previously formed the defense line. One common misconception by those two walls have been built by the Romans.

In the 14th century the land of Walland and Denge the - marsh was won by landfill.

In the 16th century, the course of the River Rother has been corrected and directed into the channel in which it flows to the present day, so that the last stretches of the lake could be finally wrested.

The gravel deposits continued, with the result that today all the old ports in the towns of the Cinque Port federal no longer lie on the sea. In Dungeness is however still tries by dredging to keep the original shoreline.

From this marsh the Romney sheep originate. They resulted from widespread in the Middle Ages, long-haired sheep and are recognized as a separate breed when crossed with English Leicester sheep in 1800.

History

The marshland was in the 9th century, the Priory of Canterbury, which it transferred on lease 1152-1167 a man who has survived as Baldwin. He was granted as much land as he could hand fence and drain. The term Baldwin's Sewer ( Baldwin drainage channels) is still in use today. Since that time, the marshland is crisscrossed by a dense network of drainage canals.

The Medieval Churches of Romney Marsh

The Norman and early medieval churches dominate the flat landscape, many of the 12 churches are open during the day and in most of them ( at least partially in turn ) held Sunday worship services. In addition, there are to visit three church ruins.

Here mention All Saints in Lydd, Romney Marsh, the so-called Cathedral, the Norman St. Nicholas Church in New Romney with Gothic rebuilding and especially St. Augustine, Brookland, a cathedral for their free-standing tower, the baptistery and ornamentation is known. The presentation of the 12 months and the 12 signs of the zodiac runs in a double -arched frieze around a Norman baptismal font made of lead, the world has probably no counterpart, and comes from France. The nave of the 13th century is executed irregularly: Six arcades on one are seven arcades on the other side opposite.

The St. Thomas Beckett Church in Fairfield is rather secluded and surrounded by pastureland. Previously, you could - depending on the season - accessible only on horseback or on a boat. Under a roof pulled down the bricks are built from brick red and blue. The interior is dominated by box-like benches.

The Church of St. George in Ivychurch is for the little place actually too large, it will be handed over a part of the space had been used earlier to store Schmugglergut.

In spots Snave the St. Augustine Church, which is no longer used is, but is framed in the spring of daffodils and this reason alone is worth seeing.

The Church of St. Clement in Old Romney has a colored exceptional in the pews are painted in light pink, here's a pirate movie in color was to share rotated. The painted in white color pews were optically too bright, so that the director had umstreichen the pews.

On the church cemetery, born 1942 in Northwood, Middlesex and died in 1994, British film director and artist Derek Jarman is buried.

51.0166666666670.91666666666667Koordinaten: 51 ° 1 '0 "N, 0 ° 55' 0" E

Geography (Kent)
Geography (East Sussex )

Rye (East Sussex) Dungeness (headland) River Rother, East Sussex Cinque Ports Arcade (architecture) Hythe, Kent Sandwich (Kent) Deal (Kent)

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