Source/Archive record SSF56228 - Tom Loader to Colin Pendleton, 03/04/2011

Hi Colin Good to see you last week. A number of queries regarding that John Samuel's report that I left on James's desk on Thursday evening. 1. I believe that James is going to enter the report into the HER. As a part of this, will the trench locations be recorded in MapInfo? While there may be little of import in the report, I notice that John Samuels took levels on the natural in the trenches. I wouldn't mind adding this information to that which I'm already compiling for adjacents sites. 2. Ostensibly the report suggests that there was nothing of any archaeological interest on the site, but this is not entirely true. Remember the work was carried out in such a way as to get the site redeveloped before any archaeology could be discovered, or any archaeological agreement reached! As I mentioned on Thursday, James should note the existence of a pair of ditches in trench 4, which run parallel to the buried 'Gipping channel'. While the accompanying section is of little or no use, the plan does record the cuts, and they are clearly visible in Plate 6 of the report. Samuels suggests that its warping of the river channel (whatever that means), but the photo clearly shows organic fill in the bases of the two ditch sections. Most likely these ditches are part of a flood defense system, aimed at keep tidal water in the Gipping channel from flooding the drained marshes. I'm guessing that drainage of the marshes is medieval in date, but whether early or late I couldn't tell you. 3. In the report, Samuels cites that the photos were included in the archive that was handed over. I investigated the tube containing the plans and sections but couldn't find them in there. Is there any chance that these are stored separately, as I'd to see any other pictures of the ditches in Trench 4, as well as getting a better copy of that produced as plate 6 in the report? 4. Just as a slight aside to this report, I walked the site a number of times during its subsequent development, peering into service trenches that I couldn't locate with any accuracy, and trying to estimate subsoil levels without a level! I'm fairly sure I wrote a side or 2 of A4 on the subject (not of any great use I suspect - for the reasons just cited), which James might want to fish out from IAS 6206 for the sake of completeness. I sorted through the slides I took while I was there, but other than recording some cut timbers, there's little else of any great help. This is one of those sites, which if we'd done it ourselves, we'd undoubtedly have retrieved some far more relevant information. Cheers Tom