EWX1248 - Ship Inn, Custom House Quay, Melcombe Regis; observations and recording 1978

Observations during building of an extension to the Ship Inn public house, westward along Custom House Quay, in September 1978. The work was done by Peter Cox for the Dorset Archaeological Committee. A deposit of beach pebbles was observed at the base of a north-south trench. The deposit was shelved to the south, from a depth of 02.5m to 0.5m below the present street level, and overlain to the south by a clay deposit. The pebble deposit was interpreted as being a possible beach line, approximately 25m to the north of the present waterfront, aligned with Lower Saint Edmunds Street. Foundations were observed immediately to the west of the Ship Inn and fronting onto the quayside. They were reported as being of roughly-hewn limestone in yellow mortar, and interpreted as being possibly for a harbour-side house of similar date to the Ship Inn. A warehouse is known to have been constructed on the site around 1806, and this building may have been demolished then.