[Romney Marsh] Landscape changes in the past ten thousand years

Dr. Christopher Green

This lecture reviewed the evidence in Romney Marsh and on the Dungeness Foreland bearing on their formation. Particular emphasis was placed on the need to recognise different histories of development in different places, and on the importance of arranging all the evidence, physiographic, sedimentological, archaeological and historical, in a consistent chronological framework.

“The Spatial framework adopted was based on the work of R. G. Green (1968). Four landscapes were recognised: the present shingle barrier and relics of earlier barrier systems, and _ the ground oceupying three former marine inlets at Hythe, Romney and Rye.

The chronological framework was provided by radiometric dating of sediments and by archaeological and _ historical records. Three important time intervals were identified:

1. 10,000 to 5,500 B.P. - Period of rapidly rising sea~level; none of the present land surface of Romney Marsh in existence.

2., 5,500 to 2,600 B.P. - Estabhkishment by natural Processes of the ancestral surface of Romney Marsh; early development of shingle barrier and accumulation of alluvium and peat on its landward side.

3. 2,600 to present - Human influence on landscape increasingly important; deposition of the Younger Alluvium and development of the Ness.

The formation and silting of the three marine inlets has occurred since 2,600 B.P.. Archaeological and charter evidence suggest that the Hythe inlet was open to the sea in Roman times, but that natural reclamation processes had made it largely available for settlement in the early Saxon period. Historical evidence indi¢ates that the Romney inlet was established by the 8th century, but had to be artificially maintained from the 13th century onward until it was fully reclaimed in the 19th century. The status of the Rye inlet is not well documented before the 13th century. Since then it has been the estuary of the Rother and estuarine marsh has been progressively reclaimed.

The review indicates promising avennes for future research. The main areas of interest relate to the processes by which the several marine inlets were created, and to human interaction with these events. Topics which seem to merit particular attention are (fy the role of episodes of increased storminess in the evolution of the shingle, barrier; (ii) the possible relationship of alluviation in Romney Marsh to phases of land clearance in the hinterland; (iii) the precise dating of major man-made structures and reclamation phases in the marsh.

For ten days, in amazingly perfect weather at the end of September, Mark Gardener, of the London Institute of Archaeology and Andrew Woodcock, County Archaeologist for East Sussex, undertook a _ preliminary ‘dig’ on the site of the Medieval church at Broomhill. They have given us a short report, printed here. It is hoped that the excavation will be continued in September 1986.