Monument record SUE 077 - Oyster beds of possible Post Medieval or modern date on Lantern Marshes, Surdoboure parish

A group of oyster pits of possible Post Medieval or modern date is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs of 1940 onwards, centred on circa TM45905301 (S1). The oyster pits appear to be arranged into two groups. The first group are almost square in shape and measure on average 10 x 12m, but the group also includes a few smaller pits and one much larger pit of about 30 x 15m. This group is orientated roughly north-west to south east, and runs for about 100m along the inside edge of a length of the sea bank SUE 087, from circa TM45855306 to circa TM45925300. The single larger pit seems to be the sole survivor of a group of larger pits that is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of circa 1884, but it is not certain from the map evidence whether the rest of the group also pre-date 1884 (S2). At some point between 1884 and the publication of the second edition Ordnance Survey map in circa 1904, the sea bank SUE 087 appears to have suffered from dramatic coastal erosion that destroyed about 250m of its eastern edge (S3). The second group of pits, that are rectangular in shape and measure between 4 x 16m and 2 x 10m in size, are orientated almost north-south along a drainage channel on the eastern side of a new stretch of sea bank (that is marked on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map, circa 1904) that appears to have been built to replace the eroded eastern section. This group of pits must therefore post date circa 1884. Both groups of oyster pits can be clearly seen on aerial photographs dating from 1952 and 1972 (S4, S5).