This work comes from the book Romney Marsh and the Royal Military Canal, first published in 1980 by Wildwood House Ltd, with text by Richard Ingrams. Romney Marsh is situated in the South East corner of England and is an area of low meadows, sea-walls, ditches, sheep and sea birds, bounded by the maritime towns of Winchelsea, Hythe and Rye. The Royal Military Canal was built in the early 1800s as a defence against a possible invasion from Napolean. St Thomas à Becket Church in Fairfield was restored in 1913 and until the local drainage system was improved, was sometimes flooded and worshippers had to reach it by boat.