Site Event/Activity record ESF23551 - Monitoring, Friars Street, Ipswich, (IAS 4102).

Archaeological monitoring of deep excavations for pile caps revealed a spread of dark soil, in most places in excess of 2m thickness. Only near to the Friars Street frontage could features be detected, including an east to west running ditch dated to the Late Saxon period. This was identified in an area of considerable disturbance caused by modern basements. The site was visited on nine separate occasions during September and October 2002. The site of the new building had been piled along its perimeter and the internal ground surface lowered by c.1m. This area was walked over and finds collected, finds had also been recovered by the contractors during soil removal. Finds from the top layer, finds from the deeper locations and archaeological features observed were all given separate context numbers (see Appendix 2). Unstratified finds were given the number 0010, those from the top metre of soil removed 0011, and from deeper locations and from features 0012 – 0020. In ten locations deeper excavations were observed, where up to a metre or more of the dark soil was removed. These have been recorded as trenches I to X (see figure 2) and were numbered in the order they were dug. Seven of these were individual pile cap locations, a further area contained the lift pit associated with two further pile caps. Although the provided plan suggested that the deeper interventions for the pile caps were to be 2.25m by 2.25m, in reality these were normally c.3.5m by 3.5m. Soil from the trenches was examined for finds and any recovered were given separate context numbers for their different locations. The sides and base were examined for features or changes in deposit. Where these were observed, feature cuts and their fills were given context numbers and their position noted on the site plan (1:50).