A watching brief was undertaken at the plot north of No 1 Park Road. The site was formerly part of the Maternity Hospital but was sold off by the developer of the adjacent Sovereign Crescent site, Mr Hiller, as a separate plot with planning consent for a detached house. The excavation of 70cm wide wall foundation trenches for a detached house was watched intermittently over a period of two days. At only one point was a clear soil sequence observed with 30cm of topsoil sealing 30cm of pale brown gravely sandy loam, which in turn rested on a natural reddish brown gravely sand. Although the site lies close to the conjectured course of a Roman Road, the stony content in L2 did not have the compacted appearance of intact road metalling. In this connection, it is worth noting that recent larger-scale observations in the adjoining part of the Sovereign Crescent development have shown there to be a naturally high gravel content on the subsoils of the surrounding area. Elsewhere, the trenching revealed various 20th century disturbances which cut into natural sand, including a cellar and service trenches. <1>