Bibliography - Romney Marsh, Kent
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The History of Romney Marsh from its earliest formation to 1837, by William Holloway, published 1849 (182 pp., London: John Russell Smith) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries   View Online

The geology of the country between Folkestone and Rye, including the whole of Romney Marsh, by Frederic Drew, published 1864 (27 pp., London: H.M.S.O.)

Statutes of the Marshes of Pevensey and Romney; and Custumal of the Town, Port and Leege Pevensey, by Rev. Edward Turner, M.A., published 1866 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 18, article, pp.42-53) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2103] & The Keep [LIB/500237] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Broomhill, properly Promhill, by Mark Antony Lower, M.A., published 1870 in A Compendious History of Sussex, Topographical, Archaeological & Anecdotal (vol. I, p.87, Lewes: George P. Bacon) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8946][Lib 3314] & The Keep [LIB/500159]   View Online

A Quiet Corner of England. Studies of Landscape and Architecture in Winchelsea, Rye and Romney Marsh, with numerous illustrations by Alfred Dawson, by Basil Champneys, published 1875 (64 pp., London: Seeley, Jackson and Halliday) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

An Old Gate of England: Rye, Romney Marsh, and the Western Cinque Ports, by A. G. Bradley, published 1918 (London: Robert Scott) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries   View Online

The Level and Liberty of Romney Marsh, by Max Teichman Derville, published 1936 (xii + 152 pp., Ashford: Headley Bros. & London: Invicta Press) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

The Origins of Romney Freemen, 1433-1523, by A. F. Butcher, published February 1974 in The Economic History Review (vol. 27 issue 1, article, pp.16-27)   View Online

A Pictorial Guide to Romney Marsh, by Geoffrey Spink Bagley, published 1 January 1986 (64 pp., Rye Museum Association, ISBN-10: 0905253035 & ISBN-13: 9780905253039) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

Romney Marsh: Evolution, Occupation, Reclamation, by Jill Eddison and Christopher Green, published 1 January 1989 (204 pp., Oxford University School of Archaeology, ISBN-10: 0947816240 & ISBN-13: 9780947816247) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500168] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Romney Marsh lies at the frontier between land and sea. It consists entirely of land gained from the sea, and being below the level of high tides, has always been threatened by flooding. Four ports now stranded miles from the sea and another lost to the sea bear witness to great changes in the coastline. The book charts the history of human occupation of a very specialized and difficult environment over the last 2000 years. Advances were made when both environmental and economic conditions were favorable. But when difficulties became insuperable, especially in Roman times and again in the 13th century, the inhabitants retreated. The struggle for survival continues, and the book concludes with the challenges facing the 21st century.

Royal Military Canal: A Brief History, by Geoff Hutchinson, published 1 March 1995 (20 pp., published by the author, ISBN-10: 0951993631 & ISBN-13: 9780951993637) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

Romney Marsh: The Debatable Ground, edited by Jill Eddison, published 1 June 1995 (174 pp., Oxford University School of Archaeology, ISBN-10: 0947816410 & ISBN-13: 9780947816414) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500169] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

These papers chart the evolution, occupation and reclamation of perhaps the least known of England's southern wetlands including Denge Beach and Denge Marsh, Brede valley and the tidal marshes at Belgar, Lydd.

The back-barrier and barrier depositional history of Romney Marsh, Walland Marsh and Dungeness, Kent, England, by Antony J. Long and James B. Innes, published September 1995 in Journal of Quaternary Science (vol. 10, issue 3, article, pp.267-283)   View Online

Previous stratigraphical investigations of Romney Marsh have tended to be local in scale, and this has hindered efforts to establish a unifying stratigraphical framework for this area. This paper addresses this problem, by describing the results of a 12-km transect across Romney Marsh, linking previously studied back- and fore-marsh sites (Horsemarsh Sewer and Broomhill respectively), and presenting additional pollen, diatom and radiocarbon data from an intermediate, mid-marsh site (Brookland). One main organic unit is recorded across much of Romney Marsh, although its age, altitude and composition varies. Microfossil and radiocarbon data from Brookland and elsewhere on Romney Marsh show that this organic unit accumulated under a general removal and return of marine conditions that took place between ca. 5100 and 2000 yr BP.
A recently proposed model of barrier development is used to investigate the history of back-barrier sedimentation in Romney and Walland Marshes. This model suggests a three-phase life-history for gravel barriers, which consists of initiation, stability and breakdown. Although there are problems in relating back-barrier deposits directly to barrier dynamics, nevertheless the Romney Marsh data do, for the most part, agree with the expected number and sequence of sea-level tendencies predicted by this model. The back-barrier stratigraphical data suggest that initiation, stability and breakdown of the Dungeness foreland occurred between ca. 6000 and 5000 yr BP, 5000 and 2000 yr BP and 2000 yr BP and present, respectively.

Romney Marsh: Environmental Change and Human Occupation in a Coastal Lowland , by Jill Eddison, Mark Gardiner and Anthony Long, published 1 December 1998 (220 pp., Oxford University School of Archaeology, ISBN-10: 0947816461 & ISBN-13: 9780947816469) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500170]

Twelve papers exploring the development of Romney Marsh, a spit of land battered by some of Britain's stormiest seas. Topics range from the physical evolution and sediment layers to landscape transformation in late medieval and early modern times, and malarial trends. There are four papers on geomorphological developments, one about field archaeology and seven historical entries

The Rumenesea Wall and the early settled landscape of Romney Marsh (Kent), by J. R. L. Allen, published 1999 in Landscape History, the journal of the Society for Landscape Studies (vol. 21, issue 1, article, pp.5-18)   View Online

The Rumenesea Wall, a seabank of early medieval date, has been traced for almost 9 kilometres between Snargate and the coastal barrier at New Romney as a consistent rise in ground level toward the south-west averaging about 0.5 metres. It probably is rooted in the Wealden scarp at Appeldorn, but between there and Snargate is today subsumed within the structure of the younger Rhee Wall. The Rumenesea Wall lies north-east of the Rhee Wall and on the far side of the Rumenesea, a waterway recorded from early times with the characteristics, when it became fixed in the landscape, of a modest tidal inlet carrying some freshwater. Together with complementary earthworks identified in the north of Romney Marsh, and the coastal barrier, the Rumenesea Wall provided for the enclosure and defence against the sea of most of Romney Marsh proper. Its construction transformed the coastal wetlands, dividing the area into a north-eastern part, where permanent settlement was assured, from a south-western portion which largely remained for a long period under tidal influence and could not be exploited in this way without further embanking. After the Roman embanking of large parts of the Severn Estuary Levels, the Rumenesea Wall is perhaps the earliest seabank of any substantial length to be constructed on a British coastal lowland. The landscape changes its construction brought about illustrate a social and economic movement for which there is evidence on much of the north-west European littoral.

Romney Marsh: Survival on a Frontier, by Jill Eddison, published 2000 (176 pp., Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN-10: 0752414860 & ISBN-13: 9780752414867) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500167] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

It brings together the recent work of archaeologists, historians and geographers, and presents an up-to-date interpretation of the area. With numerous illustrations (many in full colour), this book will delight and inform anyone interested in Romney Marsh - or in changing coastlines or sea levels.

Tenant farming and short-term leasing on Romney Marsh, 1585-1705, by Stephen Hipkin, published November 2000 in The Economic History Review (vol. 53 issue 4, article, pp.646-676)   View Online

Church building fabrics on Romney Marsh and the Marshland Fringe: a geological perspective, by Andrew Pearson and John F. Potter, published 2002 in Landscape History, the journal of the Society for Landscape Studies (vol. 24, issue 1, article, pp.89-110)   View Online

Romney Marsh is a region where few historic buildings now remain in the modern landscape. This paper examines the only group of historic monuments on the marsh in which stone was the principal medium, and where it was employed on a major scale - the parish church.
A fieldwork programme determined the types of stone present in eighteen churches on Romney and Walland Marsh, and a further eighteen in the immediate upland hinterland. The objectives of the study were to establish the types and provenance of the principal stones used in church building in the region, and using these data to examine the pattern of historic quarrying and supply from the Anglo-Saxon period to later medieval times.
Building stone supply was shown to vary according to several factors, including the geographical location of each building site, the date of construction, and the relation to known or surmised communication routes. The study pointed to an increasingly sophisticated quarrying industry, relying initially mainly on opportunist collection of beach boulders up to the thirteenth century, before sources of hewn stone for ashlar began to be increasingly exploited. The coast was the major resource at all times, and it is tentatively suggested that the removal of foreshore stone contributed to long-shore drift, and thus indirectly to dramatic coastal changes in the region. Most material was of local origin, although rare, high quality imports were also utilised.

The structure of landownership and land occupation in the Romney Marsh Region, 1646-1834, by Stephen Hipkin, published 2003 in Agricultural History Review (vol. 51, no. 1, article, pp.69-94)   Download PDF

This article offers a contribution to the long-running debate about the causes and chronology of the emergence of large-scale commercial tenant farming in England. Remarkably comprehensive evidence covering 44,000 acres in Romney Marsh (Kent) discloses a consolidation of landownership and the increasing dominance of large tenant farms during the century after the Restoration, but also demonstrates conclusively that these trends were unconnected, and that they were reversed during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when there was a notable revival of owner-occupation on the marsh. It is argued that tenant initiative and shifts in the level of consumer demand were the forces driving developments throughout the long-eighteenth century.

The Royal Military Canal: An Historical Account of the Waterway and Military Road from Shorncliffe in Kent to Cliff End in Sussex, by P. A. L. Vine, published 8 April 2010 (192 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1848684509 & ISBN-13: 9781848684508) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

The Royal Military Canal was one of only two waterways built in Great Britain by the Government. Together with the Martello towers it was designed as a defence against the threatened invasion of the Kent Coast by the Emperor Napoleon in 1805. The sixty-foot -wide waterway stretched 28 miles from beneath the cliff s at Sandgate and around Romney Marsh to Rye in Sussex. Here the Brede Navigation continued to Winchelsea and thence across Pett Level to Cliff End. After Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, the canal and military road was used for transporting troops by barge between Rye and Shorncliffe Camp. It was also opened up to commercial traffic. Between 1810 and 1867 the cost of maintenance was partially offset by the receipt of barge and waggon tolls which together with rents exceeded on average GBP1,200 a year. The book also deals with the proposed Weald of Kent Canal and gives a detailed account of the work of the Royal Staff Corps, who built the canal and of the transport services provided by the Royal Waggon Train. In 1877 the War Department leased part of the canal to the Lords of Romney Marsh and to the Corporation of the Hythe. In 1909 the last barge passed through Iden Lock. Nowadays the Environment Agency and Hythe Corporation have improved the canal's infrastructure by providing historic information about the waterway and its locality and by ensuring the good maintenance of facilities for anglers, pleasure boaters and walkers. This edition, first published 38 years ago, has been carefully revised. As well as new illustrations, included for the first time are plans showing the former location of the 15 station houses built to accommodate the canal's sentries. Military historians, canal enthusiasts and local residents will find the book of considerable interest.

Romney Marsh: Persistence and Change in a Coastal Lowland, by Martyn P. Waller, Elizabeth Edwards and Luke Barber, published 1 August 2010 (208 pp., Romney Marsh Research Trust, ISBN-10: 0956657508 & ISBN-13: 9780956657503)