Observations were made during groundworks for the laying of an electricity cable through the North Countryman’s Club gardens and along the Church Street footpath, Colchester, Essex. Trenches were dug from the existing North Hill electricity sub-station situated immediately adjacent to ‘Jumbo’ water tower, for a distance of approximately 110m to the former St Mary’s church, now Colchester Arts Centre. 60m of trench were machine dug within the public highway footpath of Church Street. This trench followed an existing service-trench in the side of the footpath and only required intermittent monitoring by an archaeologist. 50m of trench were hand-dug within the grassed area of the North Countryman’s Club gardens. As this trench was dug on undisturbed land, all of the groundworks were monitored by an archaeologist. All trenching was approximately 0.3m wide and 0.6m deep. No archaeological remains were observed. <1>