Waldringfield Island, Stonnor Creek and Burrell’s Long Wall

The Island: which some refer to as Waldringfield Island and others as Stonnor Island is a detached area of saltmarsh, separated from the East bank by Stonnor Channel It is barely an island since it often disappears at High Water and is in the parish of Sutton.

Fish Traps

A 1945 aerial reconnaissance photograph¹From the Suffolk County Council NMP Project, showed fish traps, of a type known as ‘kiddles’ off Stonnor Point although they appear to have been abandoned by this date. These were groups of posts arranged in lines to create v-shaped structures which point into the channel² A large Anglo-Saxon or medieval v-shaped fish trap has also been identified at Holbrook Bay. These kiddles would have worked on a similar tidal basis, but using nets strung between the posts, and operated on a seasonal basis..

If all kiddles were in use simultaneously, they would have covered 1.5km of the estuary. Such kiddles are known to have operated in Essex from the medieval period to the twentieth century. The inter-connected form of the Deben kiddles also supports the interpretation that they were in use for a considerable period of time. The development of a large mud bank in the centre of the channel may have impeded their operation, and consequent changes in tidal patterns have possibly obscured them under an accumulation of silts or have caused their destruction from erosion. At least one of the kiddles would have been destroyed by barge traffic so was presumably erected after the activity at Stonnor Quay ceased in the late nineteenth, or early twentieth, century³Kiddles – English Heritage-Suffolk Coastal NMP Project Suffolk County Council.

Stonnor Point

Stonner Point, opposite the Waldringfield Quay area, was known as Stonhore in 1327, Stonards in 1625 and at another time as Woodhall Stonnor. It was Stoney Point on the 1796 Deben Chart on which Stonnor Channel does not appear as it had not been dug.

Stonnor Channel or Gutter

The 1845 Deben survey shows Stoney Creek, which was dug out to form the channel by the Wallers in the 1880s so that barges could load coprolite. One wonders whether the mud was used at the cement works. Presumably, the landowners, the Wallers, were only concerned with navigability from downriver to the Quay and out again with the ebb. In the early 1930s, there was more depth in the river⁴1996 recollections in The Deben Magazine , Jim Turner on Stonnor Point, he also refers to the erosion of the timber structure of the Stonnor Point quay, which has occurred over many decades..

Robert Simper talks of the erosion of the saltings making the channel navigable around 1940⁵Erosion of the saltings  –  Simper, R. (n.d.) Recent history of the changes to the Saltmarshes of the River Deben – 2014. The middle of the channel dries at the north end to about 1.2m which is similar to the Waldringfield Scrubbing post base. Charts say 2m drying but it is deeper than this at around 1.6m drying⁶The channel dries at 1.6m on a falling Harwich tide gauge – the scrubbing post base at Waldringfield is very nearly the same..

Burrell’s Long Wall

The construction of the long straight seawall to the south-east, shown as ‘Burrell’s Long Wall’ in 1845, taken together with the closure of Shottisham Creek, must have contributed to the changes such as to the channel and island. The wall was probably built in the early nineteenth century. Were it not for this wall, there would be an extensive stretch of navigable water to the east of it, Girling’s Hard is at the southern end.

• 1
  From the Suffolk County Council NMP Project
• 2
  A large Anglo-Saxon or medieval v-shaped fish trap has also been identified at Holbrook Bay. These kiddles would have worked on a similar tidal basis, but using nets strung between the posts, and operated on a seasonal basis.
• 3
  Kiddles – English Heritage-Suffolk Coastal NMP Project Suffolk County Council
• 4
  1996 recollections in The Deben Magazine , Jim Turner on Stonnor Point, he also refers to the erosion of the timber structure of the Stonnor Point quay, which has occurred over many decades.
• 5
  Erosion of the saltings  –  Simper, R. (n.d.) Recent history of the changes to the Saltmarshes of the River Deben – 2014.
• 6
  The channel dries at 1.6m on a falling Harwich tide gauge – the scrubbing post base at Waldringfield is very nearly the same.