It is interesting to speculate on how the village would have been before the sea walls were built. Notice the that the Place Name of Waldringfield refers to “field” rather than a landing place ending (give an example?). Looking at the village today it seems obvious that it should have grown up around the beach or cliff area where it’s easy to access the river. Indeed, if our roads, buildings and people weren’t here today settlers coming up river would almost certainly land on the beach and say “this will do us nicely” . Why would they consider the rather muddy sites where the early settlements appear to have been? We propose that the settlement was not originally centred where is now.
In Anglo Saxon times and the early middle ages travel and transport seems likely to have been largely by water along the Deben so habitations will probably been built near enough for convenient water access but far enough away to avoid flooding. Good sites near the river would have been settled first {Medieval Suffolk by Mark Bailey}
Let’s attempt to reconstruct the shape of the village in the 14C . We do not know for certain when the Sea Walls were built but probably between the late 15C and the mid 16C based on what we know of other sea walls on the Deben. From {Ref? – Mike} “The sea bank between Waldringfield and Martlesham is described as Post Medieval and is dated between 1540-1734, when it appears on an estate plan of Martlesham. The sea bank between Waldringfield and Hemley is possibly later”. See Notes on Sea Wall construction. We can virtually remove the sea walls by looking at the Flood maps. This of course ignores some changes in Sea Level over the centuries (probably not much) but gives a reasonable indication.
Note – Arnott connects the Wallers with the Walls – Joe can you give a derivation as they seem to pre-date the walls by a long time.
It’s probable that the course of the river has changed over the centuries and the construction of Sea Walls both here and elsewhere on the river must have had some effect. Indeed in the 19C Trinty House supported by the judgement of God halted the Cobbold’s attempt to reclaim land by constructing the Tips. {Suffolk Estuary by George Arnott}. Both Methersgate Quay and the much larger Quay at Waldringfield must also have had an effect. However, the area that was enclosed in the lower Deben after the demise of Goseford is relatively very large and may well have increased the flow rate of the river which would affect its shape and features. As we don’t know when most of the sea walls were built we don’t know in what order but with larger, perhaps more prosperous parishes both up river and down it might be that our sea walls came later than most others increasing the effects of changes to the flow.
The 1787 Hodskison map (note Stanaway Point and the dashed line on the East bank) does not show the island and it seems that the river flows inland in few places, it crosses Sandy Lane for example. Even in the 20C we have seen the disappearance of The Horse near the island and the shingle by the slipway where it’s now so muddy. See 1931 Boatyard Pontoon.
The 1824 Bryant map does not show it either although neither map is evidence of absence.
So, it may be the case that the present day beach and possibly the island were not in place in earlier centuries. It could be that the faster flow eroded the, low lying marsh land up to the hard shingle and cliff thus creating the beach. On the other hand we have a record of Robert del Clyff in the 14C so maybe the cliff was there. A similar process may have occurred down at the Rocks where again we might have expected a settlement due to the current ease of access. There is evidence of Girling’s Hard, Stonnor Point and Methersgate, on the Eastern shore, being landing places with a hard in the Middle Ages {Suffolk Estuary by George Arnott}. The land opposite both our cliff and the similar but smaller cliff at the Rocks is quite flat so may have once been where the river flowed before the cliffs were eroded.
The evidence for settlement at Rivershall and Hilton prior to the cliff area would be consistent with this hypothesis.
So, for the Northern part we get:
And the South:
See [Size and layout of village in 14C]]
Looking to the South of the village to Hemley (according to Norman Scarfe the -eye ending signifies an island) we see how access by water would have been so much easier than by road or track. Also note how our local Churches are at the end of each arm of the river See Arnott.
Need a better picture of land/river pre sea wall.
