Monument record SUE 081 - Medieval or early Post Medieval flood defences are visible as earthwork banks on Sudbourne marshes, Sudbourne parish

A possible later Medieval or Post Medieval flood defence is visible as an earthwork bank on aerial photographs from the 1940s, centred on circa TM43595157 (S1, S2). The bank is visible for about 2 km, running from near the sea wall at circa TM44165158, to a point about 1.5 km inland at circa TM42875107, where it almost meets a trackway that leads to Lodge farm. The route of the bank, as well as the surrounding trackways, appears to be marked on Norden's map of circa 1601, which shows that at this time it was connected to the sea wall and formed part of the flood defences on the northern edge of Roydon Marshes (S3). Specifically, the bank bounded the northern side of a channel, named as Ox fleet on the a map of circa 1800, that was partially bounded on its southern side by the bank surrounding the irregular enclosure called Thomas Hughes Oxmarsh, (recorded in SUE 022) (S4). In addition, the route of the bank may have followed or defined a section of the boundary between Sudbourne and Orford parishes as it closely matches the parish boundary in this area as marked on the map of circa 1800. The parish boundary is also visible here on the Ordnance Survey maps of circa 1884 and 1904, but by this time it does not match the path of the bank and may have been straightened (S5, S6). The full length of the feature is not visible on the aerial photographs available, but the eastern end can be seen on prints from 1972, and it appears to have bee levelled, probably by ploughing (S7)