Event/Activity EPM272 - Mary Rose New Museum Archaeological Watching Brief Phase 4

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken by Pre-Construct Archaeology between the 11th October 2010 and 27th April 2012 at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on groundworks for the construction of the new Mary Rose Museum in Dry Dock No. 3. The work comprised Phase 4 of a series of watching briefs carried out between 2008 and 2012. See EPM218, EPM222 and EPM265 for the three previous phases of work. Dry Dock No. 3 is a Scheduled Monument and Grade I Listed Building. The investigation was concentrated around the perimeter and the immediate surrounding area of the dry dock. The groundworks monitored included the installation of poured concrete foundation pads to support the steel frame of the new museum building. It was necessary to remove stones from various locations around the dock in order for this work to be undertaken. Monitoring and recording took place on elements of the dry dock including staircases and chutes lining the dockside, elements of the dock's edges removed to accommodate the development of the site, an investigation of the culvert system and monitoring of trenches to install new drainage. Parts of the structure of Dry Dock No. 4, disused Penstock valves and late 18th, 19th and early 20th century dockside structures were revealed in trenches excavated. No significant archaeology was revealed during a small scale watching brief which took place between the 5th and 6th of December 2011 to monitor the excavation of a trench to install new services within the vicinity of the Victory Arena on the eastern side of HMS Victory (Dry Dock No. 2). Museum Accession No: 2022/98