2. Monkton Marshes

Last month I referred that the marshes in the Parish looked a lot different in the 1960’s than they do today. Just about all of our marshes would have been under grass. The fields were laid out completely different than they are today. Not many fields exceeded 15 acres [6 hectares] in area and they were of all shapes, and most of them outlined by shallow dykes with Hawthorns and Brambles along their banks. It was a time when dairy herds and sheep were seen on most of the marshes in Thanet, and would have grazed the fields from March/April until October/November. How long they were on the marshes depended on when they were dry enough for the animals and not too wet as to destroy the grass.

The water table on the marshes would have been two or three feet higher than it is today with some of the fields being under water for several months during the winter.

Towards the end of the 1960’s the change started. Mr Willett of Parsonage Farm [Docker Hill Farm] sold their dairy herd and started to plough up his marshes and sow them in wheat and barley [a late friend of mine, the late Vic Ward, was contracted to plough the fields, and spent nearly all winter doing it with a 50hp, two wheel drive David Brown tractor and a three furrow plough].

An even bigger change happened at the beginning of the 1970’s when the marshes were drained. At a time when the government wanted this country to produce as much of its own food as possible. The marshes produce excellent crops of cereals and some root crops [although the latter depended on how soon the ground dried out in the spring].

The Hawthorns and Brambles were grubbed out and most of the old dykes were filled in and new ones, in straight lines, were dug. Most of the fields on the marshes had tile drains put across them.

By the early 1980’s nearly all the dairy herds and sheep had gone and most of Thanet’s marshes went under the plough. Joining the Common Market in 1973 with its subsidies for growing crops, the over production of milk [remember the butter mountain], and other animal products can be blamed for a lot of the change. Many blamed the farmers for being greedy and implementing these changes. Having spent most of my life working the land I have always been of the opinion that most of these changes would not have happened the way they did without the encouragement and financial backing of various governments at that time.

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (October 2022).