South of the sailing club along the seawall leading towards Hemley is series of regular cuttings in the saltmarsh extending for about 350m. They do not seem interesting until one wonders why there are no similar cuttings on the East Coast, and what they were for.
The channels to the south vary from 5m wide to less than 2m: the longest is about 80m. What were they for?
- Mud digging for the Cement Works? – The total volume of mud that has been removed is around 1,000 to 2,000 cubic metres, 500 to 1,000 tons. However, the total mud dug for the cement works was around 112,000 tons which is large in comparison to this excavation. There are no similar cuttings on the Medway, the centre of cement production, a further indication that they were not part of that industry. A review of Ordnance Survey maps shows that the cuttings were not there in 1902 but visible in 1925: the cement works closed in 1907. It is unlikely, therefore, that there is any connection with cement.
- Another suggestion is oyster or shellfish beds. There are no similar cuttings on the Deben or East Coast. There are some patterned oyster bed cuttings on the West side of West Mersea and there are oyster beds near Nacton on the River Orwell, but neither is like these. Other Oyster bed cuttings on the river Ore bear a resemblance but are not the same. Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service gave the opinion that: “Oyster pits seem rather unlikely, but the layout suggests a trap of some kind. They could be drainage related as the remains of a drain was found in the creek north of the cuttings.”
The more irregular cuttings to the north are different to those further south and were cut sometime after the 1950s. It is conceivable that these were made for boat storage but that does not seem probable: a more likely explanation would be removal of material for reinforcing seawalls.