page_title: River Rother, East Sussex
section_title: Navigable section
hierarchical_section_title: River Rother, East Sussex / Route / Navigable section
caption_attribution_description: English: River Rother taken from Iden Lock. This is the bottom of the River Rother where it joins the Military Canal at Iden Lock on the Sussex/Kent border
context_page_description: The River Rother flows for 35 miles 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, 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.
  The river has been used for navigation since Roman times, and is still navigable by small boats as far as Bodiam Castle. It flowed in a loop around the northern edge of the Isle of Oxney until 1635, when it was diverted along the southern edge.
context_section_description: Beyond the bridge is Bodiam railway station, the western terminus of the Kent and East Sussex Railway since 2000. On the north bank of the river is Bodiam Castle, built soon after 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge. Lord Curzon restored the ruins in 1919 and gave them to the National Trust six years later. The buildings are grade I listed, and the landscaped grounds, which include a millpond and a Second World War pillbox, are a scheduled ancient monument.
  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, 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. 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 on 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, a long-distance footpath that follows the county boundary.
  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.
  The Military Road continues to follow the west bank, while the Saxon Shore Way footpath follows the eastern bank. Next comes Scots Float Lock, below which the river is tidal. As it approaches the eastern edge of Rye, it is crossed by a fixed truss bridge which carries the Marshlink railway line. The bridge was installed in 1903, and replaced a swing bridge erected in 1851 during the construction of the railway, which opened in 1852. Monk Bretton Bridge carries the A259 New Road, and below that, the Rother is joined by the River Brede at the southern edge of Rye. The river channel is quite wide, and is known as Rye Harbour. There is also a village called Rye Harbour, at the southern end of the wide section.
  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. 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. Nearby is an Inshore Rescue station, run by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution The river then enters Rye Bay, part of the English Channel.
caption: The river above Iden Lock, the junction with the Royal Military Canal
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