Monument record ORF 139 - Pig Pail Sluice, Orford / Sudbourn

Due to unforeseen circumstances the bulk was cancelled and the excavation of theborrow pits was quickly curtailed but not before some limited work was undertaken. This limited work revealed a number of artefacts related to the 20th century activities on the site, the majority of which were photographically recorded and left in-situ. It should be noted that further monitoring will be required in the event of the project being restarted, the results of which will be presented in an additional report.

A drainage sluice, known as Pig Pail Sluice was photographically recorded prior to its replacement. Its removal was also photographically recorded. It consisted of a brick culvert beneath an earthwork bank with a brick headwall on the inland side and an outworks of sheet piling and concrete that enclosed a one-way flap valve. It allowed water to drain from an unnamed channel at the northern end of an area of King’s Marsh into a tidal stretch of the River Ore, whilst the one-way flap valve acted to prevent the water returning at high tide. The date of the sluice is unknown. The outworks facing the River Ore are clearly of relatively recent origin and a large part of the brick headwall has been rebuilt relatively recently. Lower sections of the headwall and brickwork visible within the culvert appear to comprise of soft red brick which could suggest the core of the structure probably dates from the 19th century (S1).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2015 (S2).