Dymchurch, St Mary's Bay & Brookland

Dymchurch and St Mary’s Bay sit on the shoreline of Romney Marsh. A long concrete sea wall runs past the village and provides a public walkway along the coast; the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway runs close to that wall, with its 15-inch gauge steam and diesel trains stopping at local halts. Dymchurch Redoubt, a circular Napoleonic-era fort, stands near the seafront and marks the village’s military past. St Mary’s Bay lies a little east of Dymchurch and has a stretch of shingle and sand backed by low dunes and caravan sites, with the railway serving the strip of coast.

Brookland lies inland on the marsh, reached by narrow lanes that cross a network of drainage ditches and sea sluices. The village sits on a slight rise above the surrounding pasture; fields are laid out in long, straight plots bounded by cloughs and reens. Farmsteads, a parish church and a small cluster of houses form the settlement pattern typical of Romney Marsh. Local roads and the miniature railway link the three places, making short journeys between coast, marsh and village straightforward.