Rye Harbour is a village located on the East Sussex coast in southeast England, near the estuary of the River Rother: it is part of the civil parish of Icklesham and the Rother district. Rye Harbour is located some two miles (3.2 km) downstream of the town of Rye.
Rye Harbour in 1898 by Reginald Aspinwall
Rye Harbour View looking up the Rother from the slipway by the lifeboat house.
William the Conqueror Public House at Rye Harbour.
Rye Harbour nature reserve
River Rother, East Sussex
The River Rother flows for 35 miles (56 km) 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 (23 km), 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 (6.0 km).
The Rother near Iden, in the Rother Levels
Developments of the Rother during the seventeenth century, showing the new route to the south of the Isle of Oxney
The river above Iden Lock, the junction with the Royal Military Canal