An evaluation was commissioned by Connolly Leather to assess any archaeological remains below land between the eastern branch of the river Stour and St Mildred's Tannery's entrance on Rheims Way. This land belonged to the Tannery but was made available to the public as part of the Riverside Walk. The evaluation formed part of a larger evaluation project in advance of the proposed development within St Mildred's Tannery. The evaluation was carried out in March 1992 and the sitecode was TAN92.

Two small trenches were manually excavated: the first trench straddled the supposed line of the city wall approximately 15.00m west of the river and measured about 1.70m by 10.00m and was excavated to a depth of 2.80m at its southern end. The trench was excavated overall to a depth of 8.50m OD. The entire stratigraphic sequence below topsoil consisted of successive dumps of lime, organic materials, rubble, clays and loam, interpreted as refuse from the Tannery. A small quantity of Staffordshire pottery was found from some of the lower levels (dated to the mid-nineteenth century).
The second trench was excavated into the river bank, its northern end corresponding approximately to the projected line of the city wall. The trench measured 1.70m by 5.35m. A rough wall (c. 4.30m long) was located aligned approximately parallel to the river and terminating in two walls running westwards at about 110 degrees to the first. The northern wall was made of roughly coursed mortared flint and the others of roughly coursed flint and brick rubble in mortar. The wall along the river stood on foundations of large greensand slabs set on edge. The southern wall was 0.34-0.38m wide, while the northern wall was c. 0.49m wide; that along the river had been badly eroded, with its inner face lying 0.82m from the outer edge of the foundations.

Due to the degree of erosion, it could not be established whether the walls had originally been contemporary, while the northern wall may have predated the others. A few large tumbled blocks (greensand or rag), were seen beneath the water farther out from the river bank. No dating evidence was recovered from the trench.

The general plan of the walls exposed in the second trench did not correspond with historic cartographic evidence for the city wall's alignment at its junction with the river Stour. The obtuse angles suggest a short length of embankment, either around a possible wall terminal or perhaps associated with the early Tannery.

Pratt, S., 2000, Tannery Evaluation Trench: Proposed Supermarket Site (Unpublished document). SKE30637.