Site Event/Activity record ESF21862 - Evaluation, Caribbean Resource Centre, Ipswich

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) over the 26 and 27 September 2012 at 11-17 Woodbridge Road, Ipswich (NGR 616723 244719). The work was commissioned by Ipswich Borough Council who are currently making preparations for the development of the site. The former Caribbean Resource Centre has been demolished and it is planned to turn the area into a car park. The results of the evaluation indicate that the PDA lay in a peripheral location on the margins of the late Saxon and medieval town. During this period the site seems to have initially been open land that was later given over to small scale, non-domestic activity. This was typified by the cutting of refuse pits though the presence of a small oven indicates that slightly more complex activity may also have been taken place. For much of the medieval period and the part of the post medieval period the site lay vacant perhaps again given over to agriculture. This is indicated on historic maps such as that of Speede (1610) or Pennington (1778). In the latter part of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century the site was levelled up by the deposition of soil and refuse dumps. Prior to this levelling event the site sloped gently down from north to south towards the River Orwell. The PDA was finally built over in the early part of the twentieth century.