Neptune Quay, Ipswich - IAS6601

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5284/1034369. How to cite using this DOI

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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) Neptune Quay, Ipswich - IAS6601 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034369

Data copyright © Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service unless otherwise stated

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Primary contact

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service
Bury Resource Centre
Hollow Road
Bury St Edmunds
IP32 7AY

Resource identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1034369
Sample Citation for this DOI

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) Neptune Quay, Ipswich - IAS6601 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034369

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service logo

Introduction

Neptune Quay, Ipswich - IAS6601

Circumstances of excavation

This site was cleared of buildings awaiting development. A north-south trench was excavated by the Suffolk Archaeological Unit in 1989. A more extensive excavation was undertaken in 1998/9 .

Site constraints

The only constraint was limited finance especially when waterlogged deposits were encountered. The sequence presented here varies from that proposed following the more extensive excavation of the site in 1998/9.

Site summary

A series of alluvial layers were deposited against the natural sands and gravels of the north bank of the River Orwell in the Middle Saxon period (MS: c.700-800). They were associated with nine Ipswich ware sherds. Within the layers, nine in situ round-wood posts formed a contemporary wooden structure, probably a revetment. There were also three pieces of driftwood.

The Early Late Saxon (ELS: c.850-900) period was represented by alluvial layers, a single post and two pieces of driftwood. The layers contained a mixture of Ipswich ware and Thetford ware but no St Neot’s ware ruling out a Middle Late Saxon date.

Three strand line ditches running NE/SW lay on the ‘dry’ ground alongside and parallel to each other just north of the river bank were attributed to the Early Medieval period (EMED: c.1000-1200). A 20cm thick gravel layer overlying ditch 0043 also appears to be EMED and is presumably an attempt to create a hard standing along the edge of the river. The alluvial layers to the south were contemporary.

There was only one Late Medieval feature: pit (0014) and no defined alluvial layers of this period implying that they had been eroded prior to the Late Medieval Transitional period. The postholes found north of Late Medieval Transitional wall 0003 could represent a revetment of this period rather than being a tie-back structure for the later wall.

A quay wall (0003) running east-west was probably constructed during the Late Medieval Transitional period (LMT: c.1450-1600). The wall was 60cm wide and survived to a height of 80cm. Its base was founded c.1.12m OD on a clay layer (0005). It was built of roughly faced septaria and rounded flints, with occasional roof tile fragments. There was a discreet course of Tudor bricks along the outer face at the west end. Directly above the EMED alluvial layers, to the south of the wall, were alluvial layers belonging to this period, associated with LMT pottery. A plank and a group of postholes, some with poorly preserved timbers surviving in their lower levels, lay north of the wall and are likely to represent a tie-back structure to maintain the stability of the wall.

In the 17th century a new quay wall was built, some 20m south of the excavation area, and the whole area behind was reclaimed and developed with quayside buildings. On the excavated site, a series of brick walls and floors were cut through by the trench. These buildings were then manually excavated by opening a wider area on the east, west and south sides around the south end of the original trench. Three rooms were exposed, one of which (0015) had been back-filled with the debris from clay pipe manufacturing. A plan of 104-106 Fore Street, c.1860, shows that the pipe kiln lay only c.5m to the east of the site at that time.

Further information can be found in the Site Summary which can be accessed by selecting the 'Reports' tab on the 'Downloads' page.


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