Monument record BNT 054 - Series of Post Medieval earthwork flood defences.

A sequence of sea walls and related water management earthworks of probable Post Medieval to modern date are visible on aerial photographs from the 1940s onwards in Seafield Bay, to the west of Stutton Mill House in Brantham parish, centred on circa TM13053312 (S1, S2). The current sea wall that runs from circa TM12453339 to TM13273312 does not appear to be marked on the 1925 1:10560 Ordnance Survey map (S3). However, although it is of modern date it has been mapped due to its relationship with the neighbouring earthworks that it appears to have superseded and the probability that it follows the route of a Post Medieval track or causeway. To the immediate north of the current sea wall a number of relict banks are visible flanking a creek or drain, enclosing an area of saltmarsh. More fragmentary sections of bank are visible further to the north-east (see STU 066). To the south of the sea wall, further relict banks are visible extending into the inter-tidal zone of the River Stour in a roughly triangular shape. These features appear to be much more fragmentary, no doubt due to ongoing erosion from tidal action. Timber features, possibly part of earlier banks or boat hards have been revealed by this erosion action and are visible on recent aerial photographs (see BNT 055). The earthwork banks are marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1882 and therefore date at least from the Post-Medieval period but could have much earlier origins (S4). In 1882 Stutton Mill House is still a working corn mill called Stutton New Mill, powered by a water from a neighbouring mill pond that is enclosed on the western side by these earthwork banks. It is probable that the banks are related to the operation of an earlier mill on this site which may date from the medieval period.