A watching brief was undertaken when a rear extension was attached to the north west corner of 55 Crouch Street. At the northern boundary of the yard a brick retaining wall was removed exposing 1.95m high vertical section created by earlier terracing. The entire depth of the section consisted of made-up ground in which a 0.4m deep deposit of late topsoil and sand sealed 0.7m dark greyish brown sandy loam with rare oyster inclusions. The lowest part of the section contained yellow sand which extended beyond the bottom of the cutting. Although there were no clearly datable inclusions the substantial nature of both deposits and there proximity to the level of the natural sand evident in the adjacent foundation trenches suggests an early, perhaps Roman origin. <1>