Editing Romney Marsh (section)

====Shingle====
In 1250 and in the following years, a series of violent storms broke through the coastal shingle banks, flooding significant areas and returning it to marsh, and destroying the harbour at [[New Romney]]. In 1287, water destroyed the port town of [[Winchelsea|Old Winchelsea]] (now located some 2&nbsp;mi (3&nbsp;km) out in Rye bay), which had been endangered because of its proximity to the sea since at least 1236. Winchelsea, the third-largest port in England and a major importer of wine, was relocated on higher land, with a harbour consisting of 82 wharfs. Those same storms, however, helped to build up more shingle; such beaches now ran along practically the whole seaward side of the marshland.

By the 14th century, much of the Walland and Denge Marshes had been reclaimed by "innings", the process of throwing up an embankment around the sea-marsh and using the low-tide to let it run dry by means of one-way drains set into the new seawall, running off into a network of dykes called locally "sewers". In 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to install drainage and sea defences for the marsh, which it continued to build into the 16th century. By that time, the course of the Rother had been changed to its channel today; most of the remainder of the area had now been reclaimed from the sea.

Today, shingle continues to be deposited in the harbour. As a result, all the original Cinque Ports of the Marsh are now far from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being added to (especially near Dungeness and [[Hythe, Kent|Hythe]]), though a daily operation is in place to counter the reshaping of the shingle banks, using boats to dredge and move the drifting shingle.