Looking towards the Isle of Oxney - geograph

Isle of Oxney is an area in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, close to the boundary with

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

. Up to the 13th century, the island was part of the coastline bordering what is now the

Romney Marsh Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the ...

. As that silted up, and until the later 17th century, the River Rother which enters the sea beyond Rye and flowed across Kent in a west–east direction, was in a channel to the north of the island. By the late 17th century, the river had changed its course to the south. The construction of the

Royal Military Canal The Royal Military Canal is a canal running for between Seabrook near Folkestone and Cliff End near Hastings, following the old cliff line bordering Romney Marsh, which was constructed as a defence against the possible invasion of England du ...

helped drain the remaining land connecting Oxney to the rest of Kent. Today the former sea and river channels are low-lying land, leaving the erstwhile island as high ground, but still retaining its name. Places on the Isle of Oxney include

Wittersham Wittersham is a small village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It is part of the Isle of Oxney. History The Domesday Book of 1086 does not mention Wittersham, but it does assign the manor of Palstre to Odo, Bishop of ...

, Stone in Oxney and Stone-cum-Ebony.

References

External links

The historical geography of the Isle of Oxney
Former islands of England Geography of Kent {{Kent-geo-stub