The Water
The harbour, the silt and the two miles.
The sea made the town twice and then walked away from it. These quarters deal with the water: the surge that took the old town, the silt that closed the new harbour, the levels that were once the sea bed, and what a Cinque Port owed for the privilege.
4 quarters
Every piece in this section-
XXIII
The Night the Sea Took the Old Town
Old Winchelsea was on the shingle below and was destroyed by storm surge in the 1280s. The documented sequence, the decision to move, and what happens to a port that loses its harbour twice.
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XXVI
The Silt
The harbour did not close in an event; it closed over decades as the Brede and the tides filled it. The physical process, and the economic consequence of a quay that ships can no longer reach.
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XXVII
Two Miles of Marsh
The grazing levels between the town and the present shoreline are the old sea bed. How to read the drainage pattern, and what the sea walls are holding back.
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XXVIII
The Cinque Ports, and What a Port Owed
Ship service in exchange for privileges. What membership actually obliged the town to provide, and what it got in return.
