Driving across Romney Marsh from Brenzett, you pass the picturesque 12th-century St Clement’s Church at Old Romney, surrounded by pollarded willows Salix. It is the gateway to a world that is flat, stony and sparsely vegetated with open vistas: you have to love big skies to cope with Dungeness.
Composed of shingle ridges, Dungeness NNR is an internationally important area for wildlife and geological conservation. At 1,600ha, it has the largest expanse of shingle in Europe. Roger Morris considers changes in vegetation and management at Dungeness over the last 40 years and asks whether it is a site in decline.