Watching brief by Essex County Council at RSPB Bowers Marsh - Tidal Exchange Structure, Bowers Gifford and North Benfleet, 2011 - EEX56198

The construction of the tidal exchange structure was carried out by removing the vegetation and the top 200-300mm of soil from the footprint of a temporary bund (on the saltmarsh) and the removal of a section of the seawall, with the material from the seawall used to build the bund. A channel between this temporary bund and the lagoon was excavated and lined with scour matting, the temporary bund then was removed and the channel extended to Easthaven Creek. The archaeological monitoring did not identify any archaeological features other than the extant seawall (EHER 45783), which predates 1777. The removal of part of the wall allowed a section through it to be recorded, showing that it comprised a simple clay embankment which had been heightened in the past, presumably in response to the threat of overtopping.