Old Romney is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the Folkestone and Hythe district of

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. The village, as its name suggests, is the original site of the settlement, and is situated two miles (3.2 km) inland from

New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, w ...

. It lies on what was once an island in the former

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

of the River Rother. It was noted in

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

times as ''Vetus Rumellenum''. By the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

in the 11th century, New Romney had been established.

Parish history

Old Romney is a village and civil parish located in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent. Old Romney St. Clement is a parish dating back to ancient times and, as the name hints out, commenced the primitive settlement of

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 ...

. It was, thus, the initial port of Romney which over time, stretched out along the Rother toward the sea with either half being labelled "Old" and "New" Romney. As the port let go the importance of the village of Old Romney dwindled and not long after that, only St. Clement and the settlement were left untouched by the 1600s. The location of the village and civil parish is on an island in the River Rother.

St Clement's Church

St Clement's Church in Old Romney,

, is a Church of England parish church and one of the oldest churches in

. It was originally constructed in the 12th century although there is some evidence of an original structure on the site dating back to the 8th century. The church with the Georgian minstrels' gallery and box pews retaining their rose pink colour was featured in the 1962 film ''

The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh The Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn is the smuggler hero of a series of novels by Russell Thorndike. The first book, ''Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh'' was published in 1915. The story idea came from smuggling in the 18th-century Romney ...

''.

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and the Rank Film Organisation repainted them in for the filming.

Notable people

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Princess of Mindelheim, Countess of Nellenburg (née Jenyns, spelt Jennings in most modern references; 5 June 1660 (Old Style) – 18 October 1744), was an English courtier who rose to be one of th ...

who owned Agney Court in this parish. *

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

, film-maker and

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

activist, who is buried in the

churchyard In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can also ...

of St Clement's church

References

* Leaflet - "The Mediaeval churches of Romney Marsh", available at St. Clements

External links

Photos of Old Romney and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk

Romney Deanery, St. Clements web page
Civil parishes in Kent Villages in Kent {{kent-geo-stub