Monument record BCC 029 - Cricket Ground

Cropmarks of series of ditches(?) and adjoining dredged upcast(?) visible on AP (S1) from `The Avenue' to SE of `Common Lane'. Original extent not known. Possibly part of drainage system for low lying fields with main course originally linking to existing course to N which runs into the River Waveney.
Two parallel ditches visible on aerial photographs as cropmarks crossing the cricket ground in Beccles, at circa TM 428905, may be the remains of drains of post medieval date or potentially a road of earlier date. The ditches are about 6 metres apart and are orientated roughly north-west to south-east, possibly connecting with a lateral ditch to the west, and run across land that is now heavily drained and reclaimed. The extant and presumably post-medieval drains in this area are very regular in their alignment and if the ditches recorded here are the remains of drains, they probably belong to an earlier phase of drainage. It is also possible that the ditches flanked a track, causeway or road, possibly of much earlier date. Areas of paler cropmark between and to the north-east of the ditches may be caused by upcast from the excavation of the ditches or compression of the ground between them from use as a road. A cropmark approximately 150 metres to the north-west may be a continuation of this feature (see BCC 052). (S2)