Dymchurch, Kent

Description
Dymchurch, a parish in Kent, on the coast, 4 miles NE of New Romney, and 5^ SSW of Westenhanger station on the S.E.B. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Folkestone. Acreage, 1228 of land and 386 of tidal water and foreshore ; population of the civil parish, 560 ; of the ecclesiastical, 629. The surface is all on the level of Romney Marsh, and, together with the rest of that low tract, is protected from sea-inundation only by means of Dymchurch wall. This is an embankment about 4 miles long, about 20 feet high, and from 15 to 30 feet wide, with three sluicegates for drainage, and is kept in repair by a local rate, under management of a local body. Much damage was done to the wall in the severe gales of 1894, and the inhabitants petitioned the authorities to construct groynes of other material, and thus render the flooding of the marshes practically impossible. During some alterations on the embankment, relics of the Mediaeval and the Saxon times were obtained, and a quantity of Roman pottery. The living is a rectory united in 1868 with Eastbridge, Blackmanstone, and Orgarswick, in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £192 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is old. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, a working men's institute, and some large charities. A pleasure fair is held on the last Saturday in Whitsun week.