NHER 41616 (Monument record) - Breakwater and possible revetment or trackway structures

May-November 2004. Norfolk Rapid Coastal Zone Archaeological Survey.
Inter-tidal survey (Environmental Zone 26), Context 142:
A trackway and a revetment were found. The trackway comprised of two rows of posts aligned northwest to southeast, with wattling laid horizontally between the rows. It appeared to be truncated by a breakwater/revetment consisting of two rows of upright wooden posts with planking in between. A flint flake and a fragment of halved lumber vertebrae from a pig were collected from amongst the timbers. A member of the public told the survey team that the breakwater/revetment was built during the 1830s to divert two river channels crossing Breydon Water into one. If this was the case, the trackway is 19th century or earlier in date. As Breydon Water took on its current form during the Saxon period, it is likely to be Saxon, medieval or post medieval.
See assessment report (S1) for further details.
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.421).
J. Allen (NLA), 27 April 2005. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 21 July 2019.

December 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A breakwater and another structure, probably a revetment, of post medieval date are visible on aerial photographs (S2), (S3), (S4) and (S5). These remains are centred on TG 4758 0625. Part of these structures were previously recorded by the Norfolk Rapid Coastal Survey around TG 47476 06229. A linear inter tidal structure extends on a roughly southwest to northeast alignment for 272m between TG 47455 06195 and TG 47710 06280. This structure is marked as a breakwater on both the first edition 6" to the mile Ordnance Survey map (S6) and the modern map. This identification was confirmed by the Coastal Survey team (S1). The earliest available aerial photographs showing this breakwater date from 1945 (S2). An unidentified structure, possibly a buoy, was present at its northeast end at that date. Boats were moored alongside and at the end of the breakwater in June 1946 (S3).

A shorter linear structure is intermittently visible on a northwest to southeast alignment and joins the breakwater from the northwest at TG 47505 06215. It is visible on 1945 and later aerial photographs (S2), (S3), (S4) and (S5) and corresponds to the structure identified as a trackway by the Coastal Survey (S1). The triangular area created by the breakwater and trackway structure is shown as land on the 1841 Reedham tithe map (S7). The breakwater is also marked on this map. It seems likely that the possible trackway structure, is in part a revetment associated with the attempted reclamation of a small triangular area of land centred on TG 4748 0722. The presence of the breakwater, and this area being shown as land, on the tithe map supports the 1830s date for the construction of these structures as suggested by the coastal survey team (S1). The reclamation appears to have been unsuccessful and the area was marked as 'saltings' on the first edition 6" to the mile Ordnance Survey map in the late 19th century (S6).
J. Albone (NMP), 02 December 2005.