A place of outstanding natural beauty, where the sun casts glorious colours across wide-open skies as mists swirl above slow moving rivers and still, dark, dykes the Romney Marshes have more than their fair share of secrets. The Romney Marsh Times reveals five little known Marsh stories.

1. James Bond was set on Romney Marsh
Many of the characters and place names in James Bond novels and films are taken directly from locations around the Romney Marshes - Moneypenny farm is just one of the more obvious links. When asked how he created his heroines, the super-sleuth creator said : "I go out into Romney Marsh and hope to find one there". More from Bond historian, and Lydd resident, Graham Rye's 007 magazine.See the best of James Bond in the Bond Complete DVD Collection. In particular, watch Diamonds Are Forever, set of course in the Romney Marsh diamond mine - okay we made that one up.

2. Romney Marsh saved Blighty, more than once
The Romney Marshes have played a critical role in the defense of England with Marsh inhabitants fighting off invaders and keeping England safe dozens of times over the last two thousand years. The bones of an invading Viking army slaughtered by Marsh residents when they landed near the River Rother in 892AD are rumoured to lay buried in a mound near Camber while William the Conqueror's invasion fleet first landed at New Romney but were beaten off by New Romney and Lydd residents before retreating only to then successfully land further along the coast at Hastings.

And it's not just Marsh people who defended the Queen and country. On the 27th November 1942 a slow moving train approaching Lydd railway station fought and won a battle with a German Focke-Wulf 190 fighter plane. The aircraft flew over the train unleashing a burst of cannon fire as it went. Debris from the exploding locomotive flew into the air spraying the unfortunate Focke with debris. The plane crashed, killing the pilot, while the train and its driver ironically survived with the locomotive being rebuilt and returned to service.

3. Grand Duchess Tatiana, daughter of the last Emperor of Russia, is buried here
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra, who it is rumoured survived the assassinations by Bolsheviks is thought to be buried in Lydd. According to local rumour the wife of Owen Frederick Morton Tudor - an officer of 3rd Battalion of the King's Own Hussars based in Lydd - was in fact the Grand Duchess in hiding.

Amongst the tales surrounding the story are that Tudor was on duty in Russia when the Duchess was thought to have escaped and after her death, he husband laid flowers on her grave every year on June 10th. Grand Duchess Tatiana's birthday was June 10th. The Romanov mystery is comprehensively covered in the book The Fate of the Romanovs, fascinating reading for anyone interested in what happened to the last members of the Russian Imperial family.

4. The Marshes are earthquake-central in the UK
A geological fault in the Earth's crust lies just off the Marshes, under the English Channel, and in 1580 and 1382 the largest earthquakes to ever shake the UK mainland occurred here. The quake in 1580 was so violent it was felt in London and Paris and is thought to be the earthquake referred to by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet (Act 1, Scene 3,line 23) when the nurse reflects on past events, "'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; And she was wean'd—I never shall forget it".

5. Smuggling started on the Romney Marshes
Many of the England's most prolific and feared smuggling gangs were based in the pubs and churches of the Marsh. Court records detail fierce battles between custom's men and heavily armed illicit traders running across the Marsh with villagers often supporting and aiding the smugglers. In one notorious incident 250 smugglers fought customs men at the Battle of Brookland (pictured) with 5 men killed and 20 injured. For more information on smuggling we recommend the excellent book Smuggling in the British Isles: A History.


Words (c) 2009, Romney Marsh Times & Andrew Leaning. All rights reserved.

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