Tipner East Regeneration, Portsmouth
Client: Pre-Construct Archaeology on behalf of Temple
Tipner East is a brownfield site situated on Portsea Island, on the eastern side of Portsmouth Harbour in Hampshire. Until the middle of the 20th century, most of it was tidal mudflats, with the remainder under pasture. The dry land was first utilised for industry in the 1850s, when an adjacent brickwork dug for clay. Later, Stamshaw Chemical Works expanded into the site, constructing a quay to facilitate their work. A fuel depot was constructed during the 20th century on land reclaimed from the marshes and in 1931 a greyhound racecourse was built in the south-western part of the site. After the Second World War, the site was progressively reclaimed from the mudflats and used as a timber yard. By 1969, much of the site was in use as a scrap yard, with part of the timber yard repurposed to house a cement works and coal depot.
The proposed development will deliver 801 dwellings in three to eleven-storey blocks, high-density and duplex houses, and associated access roads, parking, buried services, hard and soft landscaping.
Our work included the preparation of a historic environment desk-based assessment which combined the assessment of the archaeological resource within the site and its vicinity with that of built heritage. The principal archaeological interest of the site was determined to be its potential to contain paleoenvironmental remains. However, given the previous impacts on the site, concerns over the degree of contamination on the site, the substantial thickness of made ground associated with former land reclamation, and a proposal to further raise the ground level in connection with remediation works, it was not considered feasible to conduct an archaeological evaluation of the site, be it in the form of a geophysical survey or trial trenching.
Our assessment of the potential impacts on built heritage assets within the study area, including the Grade II listed former Tipner powder magazines and HMS Excellent: Quarterdeck Block, as well as Hilsea Lines scheduled monument, concluded that the proposed development would have no impact on the setting of these assets, as far as setting pertains to their heritage significance.
Image credit: © Historic England. Aerofilm Collection EAW002010 flown 3 October 1946
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