An ancient settlement site 600m east of Cedar Court has been identified from aerial photographs, though nothing can be seen on the ground.

The area around Alderton was once a stronghold of Catholicism, and within the grounds of Alderton Hall stands an ecclesiastical building, possibly a chapel or refectory dating back to the 12th century and believed to be part of a group of buildings built by the Augustine monks who controlled much of the land on the Bawdsey Peninsula at that period.

Whether the passageway was used by the monks as a route to the church or as hiding place for Catholic sympathizers at the time of the Reformation has yet to be discovered, but with the coast just fifteen minutes walk away and Alderton's close proximity to the Deben Estuary at Ramsholt, this area has long been a popular landing point for Suffolk smugglers.

Tales of smuggling abound in the area and the true story of Margaret Catchpole and her efforts to save her lover, captain of a smuggler's ship, has much of its action around the village of Alderton.

Between 1960 and 1991, the village was the location of a Royal Observer Corps monitoring bunker, to be used in the event of a nuclear attack.