Goodwin Sands

consisted at one time of about 4,000 acres of low land fenced from the sea by a wall, belonging to Earl Goodwin or Godwin. William the Conqueror bestowed them on the abbey of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, and the abbot allowed the sea-wall to fall into a dilapidated state, so that the sea broke through in 1100 and inundated the whole. (See Tenterden Steeple.)