A tessellated pavement was exposed in the lane between the former Balkerne Hill Warer Works and St Mary's Hospital Nurses Home and reported to the Colchester Archaeological Trust by Richard Shackle. The CAT produced the following report ' the Lane lies in a narrow strip of terraced ground which leads west from the lower part of Balkerne Hill to Hilly Fields. The ground to the south side is approximately 1.1m above the level of the lane. Long stretches were found to have recently been cut back (by treasure hunters?) to form crude sections, but much of this was obscured by spoil heaped back against the cuttings. There was no sign of a tessellated pavement, nor was any early stratigraphy evident in the upper un-obscured parts of the sections. The soil here consisted of dark greyish brown sandy loam with many small tile fragments. Among the inclusions, peg-tile was common in the sections and loose soil with occasional Roman roof tile fragments, the latter more frequent in the area 60m west of Balkerne Hill together with septaria and a light scattering of oyster shell fragments.' <1>