Monument MPM1459 - Cobbled road and concrete plinth, East Street

Cobbled road surface supported by a concrete plinth recorded during a watching brief in 2012. The cobbled road was modern, immediately pre-dating the tarmac in East Street. The plinth had been used to reinforce Camber Quay and its southern access area during the late 19th-20th century.

A cobbled road surface supported by a reinforced concrete plinth was recorded during a watching brief in 2012. The plinth had been used to reinforce Camber Quay and its southern access area during the late 19th-20th century.

A reinforced concrete plinth was situated 0.05-0.21m below the present ground level, and sealed a mid-late 19th-early 20th century brick surface [see MPM1458]. The plinth was 0.16m thick, and overlay a deposit of made ground consisting of small pebbles in a sandy-silt matrix. It extended the width of the quay front, and represented an important reinforcement of the quay and its southern access area during the late 19th-20th century, later being replaced by the modern tarmac surface in East Street.

The central area of the plinth supported a cobbled road surface constructed of stone sets measuring 0.20m x 0.10m x 0.15m. The surface was 8.50m wide east-west, and had originally extended across the whole of the width of the plinth on its eastern side. This cobbled road immediately pre-dated the modern tarmac, and is probably contemporary with the existing modern cobbles in the area. It abutted the southern limit of an earlier phase of the concrete revetment of the quay. This earlier phase of the revetment consisted of a layer of pink concrete 0.05m deep with inclusions of small pebbles. It extended to the north and south of the cobbled road beneath the modern concrete, and was probably associated with the use of the quay.

Reddish concrete surfaces apparently contemporary with the cobbled area were identified under the modern concrete of Camber Quay and to the west behind the harbour.

Stephenson, Philippa, 2013, Archaeological Watching Brief Report East Street, Spice Island, Portsmouth, Hampshire (Unpublished document). SPM261.