Rother Mouth

Changes in the Rother Mouth

Until the latter half of the thirteenth century a sand and shingle spit on which was situated the old town of Winchelsea protected the marshes between Fairlight Cliffs and the Dungeness shingle (1). Landward the rivers Brede and Tillingham flowed eastwards across their own marshes to an outlet just west of the Midrips (2). During medieval times this spit appears to have suffered considerable erosion and was finally breached and destroyed when a great storm in 1287 destroyed the town of Old Winchelsea which is believed to have been located on this spit.
Much of the present accumulation of shingle at Winchelsea has occurred since the sixteenth century. Camber Castle was built in 1539 on the edge of a gently curving spit which formed the landward margin of Rye Bay (3). The subsequent growth of new spits left the castle further and further inland. By the time of the Armada Survey in 1587 the castle was already 200m from the shoreline (Fig 8a). Behind the spit the Rother estuary consisted of low lying salt marshes and alluvial deposits. The town of Rye was surrounded by water on all but the northern approaches.


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During the sixteenth century the shoreline advanced 300m (4). Bleau's map of 1648 shows this advance and differs from the Armada Survey map with regards the position of the exit and the size of the harbour (the accuracy of Rye on Bleau' s map is questionable). The River Rother is seen to be a wide estuary with its mouth attaining a width of almost 3km from the Winchelsea beach to Camber Sands on the east side. The east shore of Rye Bay grew westwards and had reached its furthest position by 1682, the coast receding in the eastern end of the bay and accumulating in the western end (5).
Throughout the eighteenth century there was a continuous build up at Winchelsea beach. Budgen's map of 1724 (Fig 8b) shows Winchelsea Castle 400-500m from the shore and in Lt. Roy's map of 1757 it was situated 750m inland. In the Yeakell and Gardner map of 1778-83 (Fig 8c) it was 1200m from the sea, a build up of almost 1.5m of shingle per annum in the 54 years from 1724-1778. At the same time the river from Rye and beyond was considerably silted up. Between 1724 and 1757 an attempt was made to divert the river waters out to the sea at Winchelsea beach. The rivers Brede and Tillingham flowed out here for some time but the Rother flowed for only four months before the project was abandoned in 1787 (6). The shingle spit quickly overlapped the entrance and extended north-east leaving a channel between itself and the old shoreline which was kept open by the scour of the tide (7).
There is clearly a loss of sediment from the east side of Rye Bay throughout the eighteenth century and a build up of the western spit in an easterly direction which constricted the mouth of the Rother to a mere 250m at high water by the time of Yeakell and Gardners map in 1778-83. The Ordnance Survey shows that by 1813 fresh shingle had diverted the "Winchelsea mouth" 1.2km eastwards (8) and the seaward end of the artificial channel was, and is called the "New Cut". The "New Cut" is clearly visible on Greenwoods map of 1825(Fig 8d) which shows little change to the estuary from that depicted by Yeakell and Gardner. However, during the early nineteenth century there was rapid build up of shingle seaward of 'Nook Beach' which resulted in the sea retreating about 800m near the harbour mouth, and the west side of the Rother estuary extending beyond the east side. This can be clearly seen on the Ordnance Survey map of 1872. In the latter part of the nineteenth century there was a dramatic decrease in the accumulation of material (9). There is little apparent change from the Ordnance Survey 6 inch map of 1872 (Fig 8e) and the present (Fig 8f). The Martello Tower marked on these maps was located on the inundated foreshore when it was built in 1804 and gives a useful point of reference for measuring the accumulation of shingle from that date. In this century erosion has occurred at the southwestern end of Winchelsea beach as a result of the retreat of Fairlight Cliffs (10). Much of this western end of the beach has been removed by erosion and a sea wall has had to be constructed to protect Pett Level (11). A very small build up of material has continued at the western extremity of Winchelsea beach against the harbour groynes.
NOTES.
1. Lovegrove, H. 1953: Old Shorelines Near Camber Castle.- Geographical Journal. Vol 119 pp 200-207.
2. Ibid.
3. Robinson, D.A. and Williams, R.B.G. 1983: The Sussex Coast Past and Present.- Sussex; Environment, Landscape and Society.- The Geographical Editorial Committee. University of Sussex (ed), Alan Sutton, chapter 3 p59.
4. Ibid.
5. Eddison, J. 1983: The Evolution of the Barrier Beaches Between Fairlight and Hythe.- Geographical Journal.- Vol 149 pp 39-53.
6. Ibid.
7. Lovegrove, op. cit.
8. Eddison, op. cit.
9. Robinson and Williams, op. cit.
10. Ibid.
11. Robinson and Williams, op. cit.