The monument includes the visible and buried remains of a section of the northern part of a late Iron Age linear boundary earthwork (the Lexden Dyke) located to the north of London Road some 2km east of Colchester town centre. A short section of the boundary bank survives to the east of Tapwoods Road, at the top of the slope leading down to the sunken course of London Road. The bank here measures some 15m in length (orientated north to south) and 1.8m high. The buried ditch, on the west side of the bank, was partly excavated during the construction of Tapwoods Road in 1971. This was found to have a v-shaped profile, 3.8m in depth and about 6m across. A Roman coin of the 4th century AD was discovered in the ditch fill, about 1m above the base. Further north, the Lexden Dyke is represented by a modified natural scarp along the western boundary of the Spring Meadow local nature reserve. This scarp (also oriented north-south) measures approximately 70m in length and 10m in width, and was evidently regularised in the recent past, probably as part of the landscaped grounds of a large house called Bramley Croft (now replaced by houses on Hunard Drive). The ditch alongside this scarp has been infilled, although it is thought to survive as a buried feature with a similar width (6m) to the section excavated to the south. Lexden Dyke North is similar in design to the middle section of Lexden Dyke which follows the same alignment to the south, beyond the break formed (since Roman times) by London Road and continuing across Lexden Park and through Bluebottle Grove. To the north, beyond the River Colne, a separate dyke (the Moat Farm Dyke) continues in a north easterly direction for a further 1.5km. The Lexden and Moat Farm Dykes are believed to represent a single boundary, which was originally broken only by the River Colne and its flanking marshes. It is thought to be the third boundary constructed during the development of the oppidum of Camulodunum, added to the north of Heath Farm Dyke in the period AD 5-43 to provide a single barrier between the Roman River and the Colne. The boundary would have thus secured the approaches to the high status burial grounds at Lexden (to the west of modern Colchester), the royal farmstead at Gosbecks (to the south west) and the industrial zone at Sheepen (to the north west). All fences, fence posts, walls and steps are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included. <1>