Site Event/Activity record ESF21210 - Evaluation, Land adjacent to 12 Duke Street, Ipswich.

IPS 653 (IAS 9007), Land adjacent to 12 Duke Street, Ipswich: An evaluation by trial trenching was carried out on the proposed site of an office block within the Neptune Marina development. A trench measuring 8.20m x 2.00m (16.40m2) was excavated, representing 3.4% of the proposed development area. The site was located in the former inter-tidal zone of the river Orwell, to the south of the medieval quay. This area of the waterfront was not developed until the 17th century, when the quay was extended and the St. Clement's shipyards were built. Natural sand and gravel deposits were not seen, confirming that the site was entirely within the river channel and that the bank must lie further to the east, below Duke Street. The earliest deposits recorded were undated layers of clay/silt alluvium, presumably representing former mudflats, and an overlying sand layer thought to have been a foreshore deposit. Subsequent horizontal deposits containing post-medieval building material were probably the result of dumping for land reclamation when the waterfront was extended and the shipyards were built. Much of this post-medieval dumping, and presumably any associated or later buildings and structures, were removed when the site was truncated in 2002-2003, prior to the construction of the Neptune Marina.