Site Event/Activity record ESF22884 - Monitoring, Chancery Garage, Great Whip Street, Ipswich, (IAS 7404).

Monitoring of the excavation of footings was undertaken on the afternoon of Monday 14th September 1998. The site lies on the west side of Great Whip Street on ground that slopes southwards towards the river; the new extension being located at the very northern edge of the area already designated In the SMR as IAS 7404. This site was extensively excavated by the Suffolk Archaeological unit in 1980, although excavation stopped short of this area. The new office extension lies at the far southern end of the site, and reutilises the current southern boundary wall. New excavation was therefore limited to two north-south footing trenches, each approximately 2 metres in length. A test pit excavated in the adjacent property (to the north) revealed natural sand and gravel directly below the surface, and indicated that the building to the north had been cut into the natural slope at this end of the site. Excavation of the western footing trench revealed an overburden of 1.00 metre, comprising a c.25cm layer of sand overlying dark loamy topsoil. Cleaning of the base of the trench revealed a small intervention into the natural gravel. This proved to be of irregular shape and contained no finds. Because of the limited damage resulting from the footings, a decision was made not to return later to monitor the east footing trench.