Walland Marsh is a part of Romney Marsh, mostly in Kent with part in East Sussex. The name means wall-land: its north-eastern border, separating it from the rest of Romney Marsh, is the Rhee Wall. [1]
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 square miles (260 km2).
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west. The county also shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, and with the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. The county town is Maidstone.
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent to the north and east, Surrey to the north west and West Sussex to the west, and to the south by the English Channel.
The Rhee Wall is 7.5 miles long and runs from Appledore, through Brenzett and Old Romney to New Romney; it consists of two parallel earth banks, from 50 to 100 metres apart, the ground between being raised above the marsh on either side. It was built in the 13th century, as a watercourse to wash away silt from the harbour at New Romney. The plan eventually failed; the Rhee Wall has not contained water since medieval times. [1] [2]
Appledore is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village centre is on the northern edge of the Romney Marsh, 12 miles (19 km) south-west of Ashford town. The northerly part of this village is Appledore Heath.
Brenzett is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe District of Kent, England. The village lies on the Romney Marsh, three miles (4.8 km) west of New Romney. The population of the civil parish includes Snave.
Old Romney is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England.
Walland Marsh is bordered in the south-east by Lydd (beyond which is Denge Marsh) and in the south-west by Rye. The villages of Fairfield, Brookland and East Guldeford are within the region. [3]
Lydd is a town and electoral ward in Kent, England, lying on the Romney Marsh. It is one of the larger settlements on the marsh, and the most southerly town in Kent. Lydd reached the height of its prosperity during the 13th century, when it was a corporate member of the Cinque Ports, a "limb" of Romney. Actually located on Denge Marsh, Lydd was one of the first sandy islands to form as the bay evolved into what is now called the Romney Marsh. The name Hlyda, which derives from the Latin word for "shore", was found in a Saxon charter dating from the 8th century.
Denge Marsh is a part of Romney Marsh in Kent. Its north-west boundary is the town of Lydd; to the south-east is Denge Beach and Dungeness.
Rye is a small town and civil parish in the Rother district, in East Sussex, England, two miles from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. In medieval times, as an important member of the Cinque Ports confederation, it was at the head of an embayment of the English Channel, and almost entirely surrounded by the sea.
The marsh was turned into productive farm land in past centuries. The land of Walland Marsh was reclaimed mostly from the 13th to 15th century, later than that of Romney Marsh to the north-east. The reclamation was done in stages by creating innings: an embankment was built round an area of marsh, which would drain at low tide. [2]
To retain the productive land, drainage channels, known locally as sewers, were created. A notable example is White Kemp Sewer, which runs across the centre of the marsh, and flows into Jury's Gap Sewer; this leads to the coast at Jury's Gap, near Camber Sands. [2] [3]
Camber Sands is a beach at the village of Camber, East Sussex near Rye, East Sussex, England. It is the only sand dune system in East Sussex, and is east of the estuary of the River Rother at Rye Bay stretching 3 miles (4.8 km) to just beyond the Kent border, where shingle and pebbles take over again. It is one of three stretches of non-tidally submerged sand east of Bournemouth Bay, which just exceeds the three in total length, on England's south coast, the others being West Wittering and Avon Beach.
