A watching brief was held during the construction of a two-storey house for Colchester Borough Council at Flory's Yard, East Stockwell Street. The foundations for the new houses were generally shallow and in many cases did not reach Roman levels. A massive dump at the east end, which was recent in origin, was mostly dug away to make a terrace for the new development. The new foundation trench on the site of the dump only penetrated dark soil. At a point on the north east side of the development, the trenches just reached Roman levels and revealed much broken opus signinum, possibly from a badly damaged floor. The trenches revealed mainly dark soil with areas of smashed Roman mortar and some sandy clay loam. Any robber trenches that may exist on this part of the site could not be seen because the trenches were not clear or regular enough. At a point along the southern edge of the site the existing ground level which rose sharply to the south, was cut away to make a level site for the new houses. This exposed some Roman levels of sandy clay loam and an early medieval robber trench. At a point to the west of this, a contractor's test pit (see? EVT3686) indicated that the natural lay at about 1.5 m below the ground level at the time and that the water table was only a further 0.5 m below the top of the natural. In the south west corner of the site were the remains of cellars and brick foundations probably 19th-century in date. The base of the topsoil was not reached in this area. In the north west corner of the site there was a substantial accumulation of soil which proved to be builders rubble laid down over the last 100 years. This went down to a depth of 3.8 m below the ground level. Beneath this was a layer of topsoil 0.75 m thick which overlay a probable Roman layer at a depth of 4.5 m. The mound was removed during redevelopment. <1>