Suffolk Coast NMP

 The archaeology of the Suffolk coast has been influenced and affected by a variety of factors. These are both historical, such as the medieval drainage and reclamation of the salt marsh, and on going, such as coastal erosion and accretion, river dredging and housing development.

By examining a variety of aerial photographs, including both historical and recent reconnaissance photography, the Suffolk Coastal NMP project has provided a comprehensive record of all the archaeological features that are visible on aerial photographs in Suffolk's coastal zone, river estuaries and the surrounding areas.

The NMP project was part of the Suffolk County Council Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey of Suffolk (RCZAS), which also involved a field survey project of the inter-tidal areas. The information from the surveys has fed into the county Sites and Monuments Record and will inform programmes such as Shoreline Management Plans, to assist in the preservation and management of surviving archaeological features. The project was carried out by staff from Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service with funding from the Historic Environment Enabling Programme (HEEP).

The NMP project was particularly focused on the coastal and inter-tidal zones, where sites are often located in areas that ground-based surveys can find difficult to reach. This fishtrap, of possible Saxon date, is nearly a kilometre from the shore across dangerous mud flats in Holbrook Bay. The historical photography also enabled the recording of features in these zones that have since been lost to erosion or obscured by shifting river silts. 

The Second World War had a brief but dramatic impact on the Suffolk coast. Following the invasion of France in 1940, extensive coastal anti-invasion defences were rapidly constructed that stretched almost continuously along the coast. On contemporary wartime photographs it is possible to see these defences in great detail, ranging from anti-aircraft gun batteries to barbed wire barriers and individual pillboxes. Most of these defences were quickly removed once the war ended, but it is important that the complexity of their original form is recorded to help us understand what remains today. Following completion of the project a publication will be published shortly on the remains of coastal defences.

The project also mapped and recorded some of the archaeology that is located inland of the coast and estuaries in order to give a better understanding of Suffolk's coast in the past. This means it has been possible to accurately record for the first time some of Suffolk's earliest historic landscapes that are visible as cropmarks on the aerial photographs.

The images used on this page are copyright English Heritage unless specified otherwise. For further details of any photographs or other images and for copies of these, or the plans and reports related to the project please contact the NMR English Heritage's public archive.

For further information on a project or any other aspect of the work of the Aerial Survey team please contact us at: AerialSurvey@english-heritage.org.uk.