Four test-pits (ranging in size from 6.3m long x 2.75m wide to 2.75m long and 0.7m wide) were machine-dug next to the retaining quay wall. The test-pits were mainly dug through brick rubble containing 18th- to early 19th-century bricks and medieval pottery. From the base of the first test-pit, a timber stake was retrieved. Metal tie-rods fixed into large concrete structures were exposed in three of the test-pits. The function of these was to prevent the quay wall falling toward the river. A large timber located at the base of one of the concrete structures is possibly part of an earlier post-medieval timber quay. Estuarine clay was reached at 1.2m and 2.8m below ground level in two of the test-pits. <1>