The Eastern Rother

NRA Southern 33 THE EASTERN ROTHER National R o Authority I inform-?1'? Dntre H e G C ; NRA Class f National Rivers Authority j Southern Region Guardia ns of the ENVIRONMENT AGENCY Water Environment 099909 sea. Drainage from part of the habitable and agriculturally area are taken from under Walland Marsh enters the tidal profitable. Today som e 27,000 ground and the principal water THE section via the Union Channel. ha of wonderfully fertile land lie bearing rocks are the sand Also draining to the estuary betw een the old sea cliffs and stones, particularly the are the Rivers Tillingham and the coastline. Altogether, more Ashdown Sands. However, EASTERN than two thirds remains below Brede. These flow from Staple- most of the water needed for cross and Netherfield through the level of high tides, depend public supply is taken from mixed farming country and ing on flood defences and land rivers and reservoirs. ROTHER drainage for its preservation join the Rock Channel on the Water is pumped from the southern side of the ancient and productivity. river at Robertsbridge to COURSE town of Rye. In early Roman times the Darwell Reservoir some 3 km The Eastern Rother, so named river was known as the Limene away. The reservoir is operated to distinguish it from the river HISTORY and entered the sea near by Southern Water Services Ltd which uses it for direct supply. of the same name in West Place names such as Ordnance Hythe. A Roman fort, the Sussex, rises at Churt House Place, Cinderhill, Powdermill remains of which are easily C onstructed in 1950, it has a near Rotherfield which is some and the various Forges preserve seen, was built near the present maximum storage capacity of 150 metres (500 ft) above sea the memory of the iron working l.ympne Castle site to protect 4460 Ml and a design yield of level. It then flows eastwards. activities in the area. There the harbour, Portus Lemanis. 21.9 Ml/d. The reservoir South of Mayfield, through were for example, no less than By Mediaeval tim es the un occupies 69 ha but is currently ridges of clay known as the ten iron working sites within relenting shingle drift and silta being enlarged. Powdermill Wadhurst and Burwash Ridges three miles of Mayfield Church. tion within the lagoon had Reservoir, located on the River which once produced iron and The o re was first exploited in caused the river mouth to move Brede, is a small impounding timber for the towns and the the Iron Age, and then by the back to Romney, which with reservoir used for direct supply. Sovereign’s fleet. Before reach Romans and sporadically Hythe, Hastings, Dover and With a surface area of 21 ha, it ing Witherenden Bridge, the through the Middle Ages. The Sandwich was one of the has a storage capacity of 808 river passes the old Bivelham headwaters were used for Cinque Ports. This in turn Ml. Southern Water Services Forge and is joined by the Tide- cooling the molten masses of set up the formation of the Ltd also abstracts underground brook Stream. This length can iron which were extracted by shingle promontory known as wraters from the Brede Wells be called the Upper Rother. heating within a charcoal Dungeness. to its Brede Water Treatment Below Witherenden the river m ound. By Tudor times, blast A succession of storms and Works. collects the Dudwell and con furnaces revolutionised the floods savaged north-western River flows are measured by tinues in an easterly direction industry. The draught from Europe during the thirteenth a gauging weir at Udiam and by to Etchingham. It passes many bellows created higher temp century. A great storm in 1287 an ultrasonic flow gauge at mills and millstreams on its eratures allowing cast iron to caused the river to forsake its Blackwall Bridge near Witter- route to Robertsbridge. Udiam be produced and wrought. The old channel to take a shorter, sham. There are flow gauging with its Roman road signals the steep streams were ideal for more westerly route to the sea stations on the River Dudwell, end of the middle length and a damming to give a head of by Rye. Accretion of shingle the River Brede and the change in the characteristics of water to drive water wheels seawards at a rate of several Hexden Channel. th e river. for bellows and forging ham metres a year, has resulted in There are a large number of Between Udiam and Bodiam mers. At that time, more than the river now discharging minor abstractions for agricul the transition is from upland half the iron-mills of the country some 4 km from the town. tural purposes in the catch flow to lowland flow as the river were situated in the Weald. Through the centuries pro ment, particularly for spray reaches sea level. Below Bodiam The history of the lower gressive reclamation of land irrigation on the Romney th e Kent Ditch, w hich is the reaches of the river and of the and the construction of sluices Marshes and in the Shirley Moor boundary between Kent and Romney Marshes is almost lost greatly reduced the amount of area. High value agricultural Sussex, joins the river from the in the mists of time. Longshore tidal water ebbing and flowing crops such as potatoes, depend North. The valley then widens Drift, the process by which through the estuary. This en to a large degree upon the and land use changes from shingle is driven from West to couraged siltation in the availability of this water. The mixed to arable farming. East by waves induced by the harbour and the formation of a National Rivers Authority The lowland Rother con prevailing south westerly winds, shingle bar across the river operates and enforces an tinues to Newenden, which has been the major force in mouth. In this context the abstraction licensing system until the 16th Century was an shaping the river outfalls and needs of seafarers and land which ensures that water is important port used for both the associated marshlands. owners have inevitably been in taken at the right times and legal and illegal trading. The It is probable that in late conflict and have still to be re only from the places where it Hexden Channel joins the river prehistoric times, a long and solved by compromise. can most be spared. from the North at the site of continuous shingle ridge stretch South of the Marshes lies the a Castle Toll of unproven his ed most of the way across GEOLOGY AND shingle promontory of Dunge tory. Flowing through the Wet the shallow bay betw een Fair- ness. This is an area of unique Level, South of the Isle of light and Sandgate. Behind this HYDROLOGY importance for a wide range of Oxney, the river takes a new' lay a large lagoon into which In the heart of the Weald the bird life and also an important cut made in the 17th Century the Rivers Brede, Tillingham Wadhurst ('.lay is som e 45m source of water for the Folke before rejoining its old course and Rother flowed. The main thick and separates the Ash stone and District Water (North and East of Oxney and outlets for the Rother were down and Tunbridge Wells Company. large volumes of now known as the Reading further East, betw een Lydd and Sands. Being impermeable to fresh water are taken daily from Sewer). The Royal Military Romney near the present site rainfall, the clay dictates the beneath the shingle for public Canal, links into the river at of West Hvthe. Siltation in the flashy character of the head supply. Gravel extraction for Iden Lock. lagoon eventually allowed waters. In winter they respond the construction industry' in The tidal limit of the river marshlands to be reclaimed or quickly to rainfall, but in volves the NRA in considerable is Scots Float Sluice at Playden “inned” and in the process summer they lack strong investigatory work to ensure which was built in 1984 to re caused the outfall to move springs such as those issuing the integrity of the water place the previous sluice of westward twice. from chalk areas elsewrhere in supplies in the shingle and to 1831. H ere river flow is Man’s continuing efforts the region. safeguard them from saline interrupted twice a day by the drained the land and made it Some w'ater supplies in the intrusion. in»trumÂt*)\ Forest Eridge — r r ‘ K ilndow #? ,_ 'Cranbro< Green Franl Upper Rother a , ^ J CRAjTbroOK DISTRICT MUSEUM rED p i 4 B c o o e a u H r V i uHartfey®3o55\V S \ j ^ , r W B & c :tm N v S WEAip^-«v to, Royal Military Canal at Stone BfflWLES\ )OOR r> O Ê (i SwitfoCteU* Clir Bodiam Castle IVI tiTS Rolvenden ■NGE A U ^ e 2C Newenden ALTAR O l c T ^ HAREMERE P E R IG O E (itherenaeTf IARY & ss I V ^ K S H O l Sea Cliffs lltH O U rSiSHlMft^HQIÊS I'C H k p R E N S ill :h in j M' reis BOD IAM A ^R O N A U ' __/ ** ▼ ._____ â _____V- R. Rother at Newenden MUS. Powdermill Reservoir _fPINE CENTRE 8 t ^ | M A N S , n & , luthJ/d Kipl#d) Scots Float Sluice fash fnon Playden Cross in Hai M •V. _ LAM'B l(fOi Ancient Rye" I Cinque merm*Td in !s t o v S T .

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