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English Channel Storms

Dymchurch Wall bears the brunt of a storm in the 1950's.

Opening of the Book "Doctor Syn Returns" by Russell Thorndike ©

Never in the history of Dymchurch Rookery that sways above the church and court house had the black-robed inmates such cause to fear the snapping of their fighting tops as during the soul-shaking tempest that swept the English Channel on the night of November 13, 1775. The giant elms creaked and groaned as the racing wind shrieked in their bent riggings. Far beneath on the flat grass of the low-lying churchyard the headstones of the graves were torn from their sockets and in some cases hurled and splintered against the church. The roof of the old Manor Farm house opposite, through the weakening of a beam, rained tiles upon the road, while all along the straggling village street chimney tops crashed down. It was braving death to pass the strongest buildings on that ghastly night.......

The Storm of 1287

In 1287 there was a tremendous storm which changed the whole coastline of the region. Eye-witness accounts describe a red moon, hours of gale force winds, a flooding high tide, with terrifying fiery crests on the huge waves, and then no ebb at all before another huge flood tide. Some historians believe that there may have been subsidence or an earthquake beneath the sea. This storm inundated Winchelsea completely, flooded Romney Marsh as far north as Appledore and moved the mouth of the Rother several miles westward along the coast from Romney to Rye after Romney harbour was completely blocked up with mud, sand and shingle.

'Serve God; honour the King; but first maintain the Wall.' ... Slogan of ROMNEY MARSH

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