NEW ROMNEY

Romney ram. town (parish), Shepway district, administrative and historic county of Kent, England. It was formerly one of the medieval Cinque Ports of the English Channel coast but is now more than a mile from the sea. It is surrounded by Romney Marsh, a level tract built up largely in historic times by the silting of a former inlet. The marsh has been reclaimed to form very rich grazing for the summer fattening of a distinctive local breed of sheep (see photograph). The River Rother once entered the sea at New Romney but changed its course in 1287, and the gradual accretion of land behind the shingle spit of Dungeness brought about the decline, as ports, of New Romney, Winchelsea, and Rye. Before 1563 the Brodhull, or annual assembly of the Cinque Ports, was held at New Romney. The town's old buildings still provide evidence of its former dignity and wealth, and many records of the Cinque Ports are kept in the town hall. Pop. (1991) 8,340.