Invasions and Migrations – a David EP Dennis presentation

Rye, Winchelsea and the Romney Marsh area have been in the forefront of many invasions. When strife has broken out in other parts of the world, they have helped those who migrated to our shores, in fear for their lives.

In this presentation we cover the Roman, Saxon, Viking, Norman, French, Napoleonic and Nazi threats to our area. We look at the waves of emigrants and immigrants, from Boxgrove Man (480,000 BCE), through Angles, Saxons and Jutes fleeing from population pressure in the east of their lands, to Celts who fled to Brittany in the days of legendary King Arthur, (all 5th century CE). We refresh our memories of the struggle of King Alfred the Great, King Aethelred the Unready and later kings against the Norwegian and Danish Vikings (780-1066 CE). We examine the system of royal banishment and the murder of Jewish refugees.  We cover the appalling persecution of the Huguenots (1520-1620), Puritan migration to America (1620-1640), the French victims of the Revolution (1789-99), the Irish migration into Great Britain (1845-52), Polish immigration (1951), Hungarian uprising (1956), Vietnamese Boat People (1978-9). All of these have come to our shores and now we are faced with people fleeing from Russian aggression in Ukraine and with thousands of other political refugee and economic migrants who wish to live in England in modern times.

This presentation is a testimony to the courage, care and flexibility of our town and its environment.