Site Event/Activity record ESF22681 - Monitoring, New Build Hostel Site, Bramford Road, Ipswich.

Visits were made to the site during the soil-stripping for the access road, excavation of test-holes, and during the excavation of footings for the hostel itself. Access Road - topsoil removed to a depth of c.0.7m revealing a surface of orange sand. A large number of possible interventions all believed to be modern. In light of observations made during the subsequent monitoring visits, it is thought possible that all of the exposed surface may be fill within a large extraction pit. Test Holes - Visit made to conincide with excavation of engineering test holes in proposed buildings footprint. The soil profile revealed made ground to a depth in excess of 1.5m with layers of ash, clinker, sand gravel and rubbish. A further test-hole was observed in the south-west corner of the site prior to the excavation of the footings. In this hole, naturally occurring orange sand subsoil was encountered at a depth of c.2m. The soil profile comprised 0.5m of loam topsoil over c.1.5m of brown silty sand and gravel. At this stage of the project it had become clear that the site, certainly in the area of the proposed building, had been previously truncated for the extraction of sand and gravel. Footings - the depth of overburden, as much as 2.7m, confirmed the previous truncation of the site. As any archaeological deposits that may have been present would certainly have been destroyed, it was decided further visits would be unneccessary.