With the various storms we are experiencing at the moment it is worth remembering that, regardless of climate change, fierce storms are nothing new. One of the earliest was the ferocious storm in 1287. Nothing quite like it has been seen since and looking at other storms through the years, it has to be accepted that the weather is changing and we need to realise just how fragile our environment is, as well as the danger to towns on the south east coastline from possible flooding and even destruction.
The powerful storm in 1287 affected three Cinque Ports, destroying the harbours of the towns of New Romney, Hastings and Winchelsea – the latter town being completely overwhelmed along with its harbour.
It was so fierce that the coastline was redrawn by nature. At that time the river Rother flowed out of New Romney port but silting up over the years, exacerbated by the storm, forced the Rother to find another outlet to the sea, 15 miles away, at Rye. With larger ships needing deeper water to be found at Rye, the harbour grew in importance and joined the Cinque Ports group.
Winchelsea had to be rebuilt on the hill further back from the sea but was allowed to continue as part of the Cinque Ports. Large parts of the Hastings castle fell, which destroyed their harbour and today only the beach-based fishing fleet remains. A plan for a marina was turned down by the local council a few years ago.
Further information on the storm can be found here.
Image Credits: Clem Rutter / Wikipedia .
Rye ‘joined’ the Cinque Ports group, as a Limb of Hastings, over 100 years before the storm of 1287, rather than as a consequence of the weather that year!
Before the 1287 storm Winchelsea had over 700 houses, two churches and over 50 inns and taverns thus implying a population of thousands of people at the time. Old maps indicate it was located close to what is now the mouth of the river Rother. From there you can look westward and see the town of Winchelsea on high ground, but it puzzles me that this new town is referred to as an ancient town.
https://www.winchelsea.com/
Barry, “Antient Towns” (correct spelling) is the official title of both Winchelsea and Rye within the Cinque Ports Confederation. The title originally had a meaning along the lines of “proved its worth” (ie by loyal service) rather than the more modern meaning of “old”.
My first encounter with Rye was by means of children’s fiction, Malcolm Saville’s “The Gay Dolphin Adventure” which includes a major storm, flooding Pett Levels and Winchelsea Beach. So when I visited Rye for real on a family holiday in the early fifties it was already a familiar place, and I loved it at first sight! I have lost count of how many times I have returned, but I am determined to be back. I am glad and relieved to learn that the recent trio of storms did far less damage than the fictional one Saville described in 1945.
My kind of conversation.
Romney (neither the Old or the New) has ever been 15 miles from Rye.
I know the website this information was taken from too, and I have always been puzzled by that claim!
[note: Google Maps says it’s 19 miles]
According to my Google map Old Romney is 10 miles from Rye and New Romney is 12 miles which equates to roughly 19 kms