A watching brief was undertaken when a 3.5m long 1.85m deep trench was cut east of 55 Crouch Street. In the east face of the trench, modern material sealed a thick layer of dark soil which extended to an overall depth of 1.2m. Beneath this was a heavy deposit of sand with silty lenses, which continued beyond the bottom of the trench. The sand contained two obvious intrusions, both pit like and filled with dark soil. The top layer was assumed to be post Roman and the lower layer Roman dump. <1>