Watching Brief

Date 2004

Event ID 576926

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/576926

No 4063 3047 (centred on) A desk-based assessment in 2004 had established that the site lay on land reclaimed from the River Tay in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although fill used in the reclamation may have contained material from the medieval centre of Dundee there were no in situ medieval remains. The site provided the opportunity to investigate the reclamation of Dundee’s early modern waterfront and find evidence of Dundee’s industrial past. A shipyard, a foundry and a calendar works (jute mill) had previously occupied

the site.

The building appeared to consist of the two warehouses of the calendar works, located on either side of an open yard (as shown on the 1st Edition OS map). These had been modified to accommodate the Arnold Clark showroom by replacing the walls adjacent to the yard with cast-iron columns, combining the former warehouses and yard into one area and roofing the whole area. The N and middle rooms seem to have been

built as one. Their façade on Trades Lane consisted of ashlar stone with rusticated pilasters at each end, while the S room was comprised of roughly dressed coursed rubble. The N room which had been roofed at one time, the roof being subsequently removed, was entered off Trades Lane, through an arched pend, flanked with rusticated pilasters. The keystone of the arch was decorated with a carved head.

Eight engineers’ test pits, excavated by machine, were monitored. They provided evidence that the infilling and

land reclamation undertaken in the early 19th century had involved the dumping of waste construction / demolition rubble from the urban redevelopment then taking place in Dundee. No medieval remains or dressed stonework were recovered. Evidence of previous industrial activity relating to the shipyard and foundry was recorded, as was a possible fragment of a sea wall/embankment in test pit 2. The purpose of the tank recorded in test pit 2 is not clear.

Monitoring of a manhole for a sewer pipe located two parts of a mortared stone wall at a depth of 0.45m below the former showroom floor, possibly another sea embankment wall.

A shipwright’s adze was found by workmen during construction work; it was stamped ‘ROBT SORBY SHEFFIELD PATN 058½ A I WARRANTED CAST STEEL’. The ‘A I’ is in the form of a sailing ship and lighthouse. The adze will be given to Dundee Museum.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: Henry Boot Scotland

David Perry (SUAT Ltd), 2008