One of the most striking impacts upon the Kent estuary was the extent of land reclamation. Any water catchment area is under a constant state of change, which has implications upon the whole catchment and, in particular, those downstream riparian and estuarine zones. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the coastal settlements were very accessible to the sea and custom houses were built at Arnside, Milnthorpe, and Sandside. Agricultural policy changes, particularly those directed at reducing food production and the restocking of regions of upland England following the foot and mouth epidemic, will result in wide-scale changes in the rural landscape. The construction of the railway effectively cut off the old settlement of Grange from the sea by a high embankment. The changes to the location have been very significant but Grange-over-Sands, protected from the shoreline by the railways, remains effectively untouched.