Monument record HLY 064 - Post Medieval sea banks and flood defences.

Post Medieval sea banks are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs from 1945, running along the western side of the creek that runs to the west of Oxley Marshes and Shingle Street. The bank runs for roughly 3.2 km from TM 36704390, just to the south of the sluice on Barthorp's Creek, to TM 36104158, on Bawdsey Beach to the south of Shingle Street. To the southern end of the sea bank, to the south of Shingle Street, another bank is visible on the beach running parallel to the main bank from 440m from TM 36374240 to TM 36294197. The two bank are joined by another short bank at TM 39294212, creating two almost enclosed areas on the beach. It is not clear whether this shorter bank represents the remains of an older sea defence or whether it had another function. A curvilinear stretch of bank at TM 36414365 may also be the remains of an earlier flood defence. (S1) Apart from the short curvilinear stretch of bank, all the other banks are depicted on the 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps of circa 1884 and 1904 suggesting that these sea defences and flood defences are of Post Medieval date. (S2) (S3)