Regular Cuttings at Kingfisher Creek – origins unknown – Photo by Stan Baston
Google Earth – Regular Cuttings at “Kingfisher Creek” – origins unknown
A walk past the sailing club along the sea wall leading, not quite, to Hemley will reveal a series of cuttings in the saltmarsh extending for about 350m. The channels vary from 5m wide to less than 2m. The longest is about 80m. The late Andrew Haig referred to this as Kingfisher Creek. Kingfisher was the barge used for mud digging in the Cement Years which led us to the idea that the cuttings might be named after the barge and were therefore related to the Cement Works. Another thought was that they were connected with the World War Two dummy landing craft. Other suggestions were that they could have been cut for sea wall repairs, berthing boats or as oyster beds.
A review of maps shows that they were not there in 1902. 1)1902 Ordnance Survey 25″ map Neither were they visible in 1919 2)1919 Ordnance Survey 1″ scale map albeit that is on a lower detail map. They are visible in 1925. 3)1925 25″ scale Ordnance Survey We can say then, that they most probably appeared between 1919 and 1925 so let’s consider the possibilities.
Mud for the Cement Works – A rough calculation shows that around 1000 -2000 cubic metres of mud have been removed, not much in the context of the cement works (peak production = 10,000 tons requiring 20,000 tonnes of mud). If they were cement related we would expect to find something similar on the Medway but do not. Other cuttings, supposedly related to a brickworks, are on the Crouch at Bridgemarsh Island but these are not the same. In any case by 1919 by which time the Cement Works was closed.
Berths for boats – the depth is shallow and what use would they be in holding a boat in a tideway? Surely they would run with, rather than across, the tide. Storage of boats was not likely to be a problem in 1919-1925.
Dummy Landing Craft (Bigbobs) – Eliminated by dates since the cuttings pre-date World War Two.
Diggings to provide material for sea wall repairs is possible but why only here when there are many miles of sea walls in the area and no similar cuttings?
Oyster or shellfish beds – There are no similar cuttings on the Deben or East Coast. There are some patterned oyster bed cuttings on the West side of West Mersea but not like these. Other Oyster bed cuttings on the Ore bear a resemblance but are not the same. 4)suffolk-coast-nmp/suffolk-coast-nmp-internal-report.pdf/ This does seem the most probable solution but is inconclusive.
Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service gave us the opinion that:
Oyster pits seem rather unlikely but the layout suggests a trap of some kind. They could be something drainage related as the remains of a drain was found in the creek north of the cuttings.
It’s surprising that we can’t be sure of the origin and purpose of a feature that’s barely older than some of our villagers.
See Oyster Bed Extract from ENGLISH HERITAGE Suffolk Coastal NMP Project SUFFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL
1902 Cutting 2018-03-10_090801_maps.nls.uk
1919 OS Map extract
1925 cutting 2018-03-10_090717_maps.nls.uk
References
An historian friend of mine looked along the very straight edge of the river along this saltmarsh and wondered if the cuttings were made to provide mud for the building up of the ‘piers’ between, thus creating berthing facilities. However, there is no evidence of any industrial or fishing activity between 1919 and 1926 which would require such facilities. Gareth