Monument record BCC 067 - Worlingham Walls

Two roughly parallel earthwork banks visible on aerial photographs crossing Beccles marshes for circa 1.6km and centred on circa TM442916 may be part of a post medieval system of drainage, reclamation and water management but may also have greater significance and earlier origins as boundary markers for common land and parish bounds. The banks, known as Worlingham Walls, flank a central drainage ditch, probably on the line of a natural creek, but also act as a focus and interface between two different systems of land drains. It is unlikely to be a coincidence that the parish boundary between Beccles and Worlingham follows the line of the central drain; it is probable the reclamation of the marsh either side of this boundary was organised separately by the two parishes. This boundary is also apparent on Hodskinson's map of circa 1793 as the edge of Beccles Commons. The south-eastern tip of the bank is obscured by tree cover. (S1, S2)