River Rother, East Sussex
River Rother | |
---|---|
Physical characteristics | |
Mouth | |
• location | Rye Bay |
• coordinates | 50°55′51″N 0°46′19″E / 50.930913°N 0.771844°E |
Length | 56 km (35 mi) |
Basin size | 970 km2 (370 sq mi) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | |
• right |
The River Rother flows for 35 miles (56 km) through the English counties of East Sussex and Kent. Its source is near Rotherfield in East Sussex, and its mouth is on Rye Bay, part of the English Channel. Prior to 1287, its mouth was further to the east at New Romney, but it changed its course after a great storm blocked its exit to the sea. It was known as the Limen until the sixteenth century. For the final 14 miles (23 km), the river bed is below the high tide level, and Scots Float sluice is used to control levels. It prevents salt water entering the river system at high tides, and retains water in the river during the summer months to ensure the health of the surrounding marsh habitat. Below the sluice, the river is tidal for 3.7 miles (6.0 km).
The river has been used for
The river has been managed by a number of bodies, including the Rother Levels
Etymology
The modern name of the river is comparatively recent, probably dating from around the sixteenth century. It is derived from the village and
Hydrology
The Rother rises in the
Scots Float sluice, some 3.7 miles (6 km) from the mouth of the river, is used to control levels. It is named after Sir John Scot(t), who enlarged a harbour on the site around 1480.[5] The river below it is tidal, and it is closed as the tide rises, to prevent salt water passing up the river. During dry years, the sluice may be kept closed for most of the summer, as the water is used to maintain the marsh environment. A navigation lock bypasses the sluice. If heavy rainfall coincides with a high tide, where outflow is tide-locked, the river above the sluice to Bodiam acts as a huge holding reservoir for flood water, and is managed as such.[6][7] In times of high flow, water is also pumped from the river at Robertsbridge into Darwell Reservoir,[8] which can hold 167 million cubic feet (4730 Ml) of water.[9][10] It covers an area of 156 acres (63 ha) and was built between 1937 and 1949. Since the 1980s, its output has been taken by pipeline to Beauport Park, from where it provides a public water supply for Hastings.[11]
History
Near its mouth, the River Rother no longer follows its ancient course, as it once flowed across Romney Marsh and joined the sea at
Early developments
The river is known to have been used for shipping in Roman times, when it was navigable to Bodiam and possibly further upstream. There are records of small boats reaching Etchingham during Saxon and Norman periods. Stone for building Bodiam Castle was transported along the river in the fourteenth century, and iron was shipped from Newenden or Udiam in the sixteenth century. A century later, an iron store was erected at Udiam. Maytham Wharf served Rolvenden, while Tenterden was served by Small Hythe.[13]
The Isle of Oxney is an area of higher land to the west of Appledore, which is isolated from high ground to its north and south. The valley around the northern edge of it was known as the Upper Levels, while that to the south was called the Wittersham Levels, and had its own Commission of Sewers. The Rother had been routed around the northern side of the Isle since the 1330s, when the Knelle Dam (grid reference TQ 852 269[14]) was built at the western end of the Wittersham Levels. The sea was prevented from entering the levels by the Wittersham Sea Wall, built across the eastern end of the valley. This enabled some of the levels to be used for agriculture all year round, although some was only suitable for summer grazing. A perennial problem with the river was that the tides deposited large quantities of silt in the channel, and during the summer months the flow of the river was insufficient to scour the silt away. As a result, some 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of the Upper Levels were "drowned lands" by 1629, meaning that they were persistently flooded, and another 2,000 acres (810 ha) were only usable in the summer months.[15]
From the 1600s onwards, much effort and expense had been spent trying to drain the Upper Levels, including the construction of the Great Freshwater Sluice below Appledore. Its purpose was to limit the inflow of the tide, and to control the outflow of the river. The works were not particularly successful, and negotiations were started with the Commissioners of the Wittersham Levels to divert the river through those levels. After initial reluctance, an agreement was reached in February 1631. The western end of the levels, from Kent Wall to the Knelle Dam, was to be used as an "indraught", essentially a holding reservoir for river water and some sea water, which would be released in a controlled way to scour the main channel. An embanked channel called the New Salt Channel was constructed across the levels between Kent Wall and a new sluice in the Wittersham Sea Wall. The river was flowing to the south of the Isle by 4 May 1635, an on 4 October, the navigation was also routed along the new channel,[16] reducing its length by 5 miles (8 km). The former channel to the north became known as the Reading Sewer.[17]
Disaster occurred on Lady Day 1644, when an exceptionally high tide flooded the Upper Levels, and broke through the walls of the New Salt Channel. The Commissioners authorised the construction of a new sea sluice at Kent Wall, and work began in May 1646, but in September, they decided that it should be built at Blackwall instead. The height of Knelle Dam was regularly adjusted, in an attempt to manage the amount of water that still flowed along the Appledore Channel, and the conflicting needs of navigation and drainage. The Great Freshwater Sluice below Appledore deteriorated, and failed in 1650. A new sluice with three channels was built in 1669. The financial burden on the Upper Levels as a result of the sea entering the Wittersham Levels was huge, as they had to pay rent on all land that was not available to its original owners,[18] and so in 1671, an agreement was reached that the sea would be excluded from the levels. Work began in 1680 to enclose areas of land on both sides of the valley, and was largely completed by 1684. The work included a new embanked channel for the Rother, which was built along the southern edge of the valley. It was called the Craven Channel, and ended at Craven Sluices.[19]
When repairs to Craven Sluices were necessary in 1684, the water was temporarily diverted into Scots Float Channel. This worked well, and a regulating penn was built, so that water could be routed to Craven Sluices or Scots Float.[20] Knock Sluice was built below the Appledore Sluice in 1686, and land above it was reclaimed.[21] In 1696, New Knock Sluice was built, close to Craven Sluices, and the sea was finally excluded from the Wittersham Levels.[22]
In 1723, the Commissioners of the Kent and Sussex Rother Levels employed the civil engineering contractor John Reynolds to make repairs to Scots Float Sluice, a timber
Vessels used on the river were Rye sailing barges, which were about 45 by 12 feet (13.7 by 3.7 m) in size, with a draught of 2.75 feet (0.84 m). A pamphlet published in 1802 announced that there were 16 barges operating on the river, whereas there had only been three some ten years earlier. The main cargoes were manure, fuel and roadstone, and the places served by the river were listed as Appledore, Reading Street, Maytham Wharf, Newenden, Bodiam and Small Hythe. Boats also worked along part of the Newmill Channel towards Tenterden. The river did not have a towing path, and the boats were bow-hauled by men. Scots Float Sluice was described as being "very inconvenient and ill-adapted to the present vessels which navigate the Rother" by the civil engineer John Rennie in 1804.[24]
The end of the eighteenth century was a turbulent period; Britain was at war with France from 1793 to 1802. Hostilities between the two countries ceased with the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, but in 1803, the Napoleonic Wars began, and there were fears that France would invade England. In order to frustrate such an attack, the Royal Military Canal was proposed. This was initially a small canal near Hythe, but was extended during its planning phase to Cliff End, near Pett in East Sussex.[25] The canal would join the River Rother at Iden and the river would become part of the defence system, as would the course of the River Brede from Rye to Winchelsea. Completion was scheduled for June 1805, but construction did not start until late 1804, and by the time it was completed in 1809, invasion was thought to be unlikely.[26]
The Rother Levels Acts were two
Iden Lock connected the Royal Military Canal to the river. The last commercial barge to pass from the Rother through Iden lock onto the canal was the Vulture, carrying 27 tons of shingle on 15 December 1909. After that, the lock was replaced by a sluice, severing the navigable connection.[27] The river was used by pleasure craft in Edwardian times, when regular boat trips from Scots Float Sluice, then called Star Lock, to Bodiam Castle were offered. The lower river is currently used for moorings, and the Bodiam Ferry Company operate a trip boat from Newenden Bridge to Bodiam Castle.[12][28]
Flooding
In 1960, there was extensive flooding of the Rother Valley, with some 31 square miles (80 km2) inundated, and in some areas the water did not recede for several months. In 1962 the Kent River Board introduced a
Jurisdiction
River Rother, East Sussex | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Responsibility for the river has resided with a number of legal bodies in the past. The first was the Rother Levels Commissioners of Sewers, who were established by
The River Board Act of 1950 sought to replace the Catchment Boards with larger organisations, and from 1950 the East Sussex River Board took over the responsibilities of most of the catchments in East Sussex, but the Rother and Jury's Gut Catchment Board became part of the Kent River Board. Further changes followed the Water Resources Act 1963, and responsibility passed to the Kent and Sussex River Authorities in 1964. Ten years later, these structures were replaced by unitary authorities, who had responsibility for the supply of drinking water and for the drainage function of rivers. This lasted until the passing of the Water Act 1989, which split apart the two functions, and management of the river became the responsibility of the National Rivers Authority, Southern Region.[32] Finally in April 1996, the National Rivers Authority was abolished with the formation of the Environment Agency. The agency has responsibility for drainage and water quality, and in the case of some rivers, it holds the navigation rights.[34] The Rother is unusual, in that while it is under the jurisdiction of the Environment Agency, it is a free river, and so a licence is not required to use it. The Environment Agency also acts as the harbour authority for Rye Harbour, another unique situation, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs acts as a signatory to the Harbour of Rye Bylaws.[12]
The Environment Agency has powers to manage flood control on main rivers, which are defined by a series of statutory main river maps, and for water quality on all watercourses. Responsibility for watercourses other than the main rivers resides with Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs).[35] The Rother is a main river below Mayfield.[36] Internal Drainage Boards have tended to amalgamate to cover larger areas, and the Romney Marshes Area IDB formed from the Romney Marsh Levels, the Walland Marsh, the Denge and Southbrooks, the Rother and the Pett IDBs.[37] It manages 220 miles (350 km) of drainage ditches and watercourses, although most of the pumping stations which pump water from the drainage ditches into the Rother are owned by the Environment Agency.[38]
Route
The River Rother rises from several springs on the south-eastern side of Cottage Hill near
The river curves to the east along the southern edge of Mayfield, passing a sewage works on the south bank and crossing under an abandoned railway embankment and a road at St Dunstan's Bridge. A tributary joins from the south, which once drove Moat Mill.[39] The mill house dates from the seventeenth century, is timber framed and has been faced with red brick on the ground floor while the attached three-storey mill building dates from the following century. It has been converted into a house, although most of the mill machinery is still present, but has been isolated from the living space by glass panels.[41]
The river is joined by two more tributaries, one from the north and the second from the south, after which it is crossed by a minor road at Scotsford Bridge. It drops below the 148-foot (45 m) contour soon afterwards. The next bridges are Turks Bridge and Bivelham Forge Bridge. Tide Brook joins from the north, and Witherenden Mill, a two-storey building that was originally the mill house is below the junction..
After Crowhurst Bridge, which carries the Burwash to
A little further to the east, the
The river turns towards the northeast, passing under an abandoned railway bridge and dropping below the 16-foot (4.9 m) contour to reach Bodiam. A local road crosses the river at Bodiam Bridge, and passes through the site of a Romano-British settlement to the south of the bridge.[47]
Beyond the bridge is
For the final 14 miles (23 km) from Bodiam to the sea, the bed of the river is below the high-water mark of neap tides,[50] and there are numerous drainage ditches traversing the valley floor. The river is embanked, with sluices and pumping stations along its banks, which discharge water drained from the low-lying land into the river channel. The Kent Ditch joins on the northern bank, and forms the boundary between the counties of Kent and East Sussex. After the junction, the boundary runs along the centre of the river.
At Newenden, Newenden Bridge carries the A28 road over the channel. It was built with three arches in 1706, but in an earlier Medieval style.[51] Northiam lies just to the south. A loop to the south takes the river under the Kent and East Sussex Railway, and into an area known as the Rother Levels. The county boundary now follows a small channel to the north, which was the main channel when the river passed around the northern edge of the Isle of Oxney prior to 1635. The boundary joins the Hexden Channel near Maytham Wharf, and rejoins the river when the channel does. Next, Potman's Heath Channel joins.
The short channel splits into Newmill Channel and Reading Sewer a little further to the north, the first flowing southwards, and the second originally flowing northwards, when it was the main channel for the River Rother. A public footpath follows the eastern bank of Potman's Heath Channel, and continues along the north bank of the river to Blackwall Bridge, where it becomes part of the Sussex Border Path,[39] a long-distance footpath that follows the county boundary.[52]
The low-lying land through which the channel passes is called the Rother Levels. Soon after New Bridge carries Wittersham Road over the river, the channel turns to the south, to run along the eastern edge of Walland Marsh. The Military Road, which was built along the landward side of the Royal Military Canal, crosses to the western bank of the river just before Iden Lock, the disused entrance to the canal. The lock structure contains a sluice mechanism, which is used to regulate water levels in the canal, but during the summer months, water is pumped from the river into the canal, from where it irrigates the marshes.[53][54]
The Military Road continues to follow the west bank, while the
There was a wharf on the river in 1874, served by a railway line, and sidings which were used to collect shingle. By 1909, the wharf had been replaced by a landing stage slightly further downstream, which was also served by the railway.[56] As it nears the sea, a Martello tower, built in 1806 to protect against French invasion, stands to the west of the channel. It is numbered 28, and was one of many such structures built at the time.[57] Nearby is an Inshore Rescue station, run by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution[58] The river then enters Rye Bay, part of the English Channel.[39]
Water quality
The Environment Agency measure the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of
The water quality of the River Rother system was as follows in 2019.
Section | Ecological Status | Chemical Status | Length | Catchment | Channel |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Upper Rother Five Ashes to Coggins Mill Stream[60] | Moderate | Fail | 10.8 miles (17.4 km) | 15.04 square miles (39.0 km2) | |
Rother between Coggins Mill Stream and Etchingham[61] | Moderate | Fail | 7.3 miles (11.7 km) | 9.09 square miles (23.5 km2) | |
Socknersh Stream[62] | Good | Fail | 5.7 miles (9.2 km) | 3.92 square miles (10.2 km2) | |
Limden[63] | Poor | Fail | 4.0 miles (6.4 km) | 6.77 square miles (17.5 km2) | |
Kent Ditch[64] | Poor | Fail | 9.9 miles (15.9 km) | 10.84 square miles (28.1 km2) | |
Hexden Channel[65] | Poor | Fail | 15.9 miles (25.6 km) | 20.10 square miles (52.1 km2) | |
Lower Rother from Etchingham to Scott's Float[66] | Moderate | Fail | 30.2 miles (48.6 km) | 55.51 square miles (143.8 km2) | heavily modified |
Rother[67] | Moderate | Fail | heavily modified |
The reasons for the quality being less than good include sewage discharge affecting most of the river, and physical modification of the lower river. Like many rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and mercury compounds, neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.
Points of interest
References
- ^ Tatton-Brown 1988, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Swanton 2000, pp. 84–85; Hunter Blair 2003, p. 76.
- ^ a b Tatton-Brown 1988, p. 105
- ^ CFMP 2008, pp. 27, 29.
- ^ Blair 2007, pp. 100–104.
- ^ CMP 1994, pp. 3–4.
- ^ CFMP 2008, p. 29.
- ^ CMP 1994, p. 12.
- ^ "Reservoir Levels". Southern Water. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ CFMP 2008, p. 33.
- ^ "Darwell Reservoir". Mountfield Parish Council. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ^ a b c d Cumberlidge 2009, p. 260
- ^ Hadfield 1969, pp. 34, 37.
- ^ Kent LXXIX.14 (Map). 1:2500. 25-inch England and Wales. Ordnance Survey. 1898.
- ^ Eddison 1988, p. 142.
- ^ Eddison 1988, pp. 142–145.
- ^ Hadfield 1969, p. 37.
- ^ Eddison 1988, p. 146.
- ^ Eddison 1988, pp. 147–148.
- ^ Eddison 1988, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Eddison 1988, p. 150.
- ^ Eddison 1988, p. 152.
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 571.
- ^ a b Hadfield 1969, p. 37
- ^ Hadfield 1969, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Cumberlidge 2009, p. 261.
- ^ Hadfield 1969, p. 42.
- ^ "Boat Trips on the River Rother". Bodiam Ferry Company. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ "Kent River Board (Harbour of Rye) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1 March 1962. SS.1074,1080. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ^ "What is RHBOA?". Rye Harbour Boat Owners Association. Archived from the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
- ^ Robinson 1988, p. 166.
- ^ a b "Archive of the National Rivers Authority, Southern Regions". The National Archive. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ Dobson & Hull 1931, p. 113.
- ^ Cumberlidge 2009, p. 40.
- ^ "Explanation of Terms". Environment Agency. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ CAMS 2006, p. 3.
- ^ "Welcome to... Romney Marshes". Romney Marshes Area IDB. Archived from the original on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Maintenance". Romney Marshes Area IDB. Archived from the original on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ordnance Survey, 1:25,000 map, available here
- ^ Historic England. "Woolbridge Furnace (1002209)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Moat Mill House and Mill (1286040)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Witherenden Mill (1274562)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Roundels oasthouses and granary (1237651)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Former oasthouse to Mill Farm (1391400)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "The Abbey, Robertsbridge (1221354)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Abbey ruins, Robertsbridge (1274121)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Romano-British site south of Bodiam Bridge (1002235)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Bodiam Castle (1044134)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Historic England. "Bodiam Castle and its landscaped setting (1013554)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Eddison & Green 1988, p. 142.
- ^ Historic England. "Newenden Bridge (1217121)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ "Sussex Border Path". Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
- ^ CFMP 2008, p. 32.
- ^ CMP 1994, p. 4.
- ^ "Rye's Harbour in the 19th Century". Rye Castle Museum. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ^ Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 map, 1874 and 1909
- ^ Historic England. "Martello Tower (1217121)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ "Rye Harbour Lifeboat Station". RNLI. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ "Glossary (see Biological quality element; Chemical status; and Ecological status)". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
- ^ "Upper Rother Five Ashes to Coggins Mill Stream". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Rother between Coggins Mill Stream and Etchingham". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Socknersh Stream". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Limden". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Kent Ditch". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Hexden Channel". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Lower Rother from Etchingham to Scott's Float". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "Rother". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
Bibliography
- Blair, John, ed. (25 October 2007). Waterways and Canal-Building in Medieval England. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921715-1.
- Hunter Blair, Peter (2003). An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83085-0.
- CAMS (2006). "The Rother Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy" (PDF). Environment Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2011.
- CFMP (2008). "The Rother and Romney Catchment Flood Management Plan (Part 2)" (PDF). Environment Agency.[permanent dead link]
- CMP (May 1994). "East Sussex Rother Catchment Management Plan Consultation Report" (PDF). National Rivers Authority. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 July 2018.
- Cumberlidge, Jane (2009). Inland Waterways of Great Britain (8th Ed.). Imray Laurie Norie and Wilson. ISBN 978-1-84623-010-3.
- Dobson, Alban; Hull, Hubert (1931). The Land Drainage Act 1930. Oxford University Press.
- Eddison, Jill (1988). 'Drowned Lands': Changes in the Course of the Rother and its Estuary and Associated Drainage Problems, 1635-1737. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2021. (Chapter 12 of Eddison & Green 1988)
- Eddison, Jill; Green, Christopher, eds. (1988). Romney Marsh: Evolution, Occupation, Reclamation. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology. )
- Hadfield, Charles (1969). The Canals of South and South-East England. David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4693-8.
- Robinson, Godfrey (1988). Sea defence and land drainage of Romney Marsh. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2021. (Chapter 13 of Eddison & Green 1988)
- Skempton, Sir Alec; et al. (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: Vol 1: 1500 to 1830. Thomas Telford. ISBN 978-0-7277-2939-2.
- Swanton, Michael, ed. (2000). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. London, UK: Phoenix. ISBN 978-1-84212-003-3.
- Tatton-Brown, Tim (1988). The Topography of the Walland Marsh area between the 11th and 13th centuries. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2021. (Chapter 9 of Eddison & Green 1988)
External links
Media related to River Rother (Eastern) at Wikimedia Commons