A small trial trench or test pit, 1.1 x 1.1m in area, was excavated in the rear yard of 8 St Botolph’s Street, Colchester. A gravel surface was defined at a depth of 1.3m. The date of the surface is uncertain but it may be associated with similar material, thought to be Roman, previously noted in nearby evaluation works. The surface had been cut on its northern edge by a post-medieval feature. <1> The uppermost 350mm consisted of modern concrete hardstanding (L1) laid on hardcore (L2). Beneath this was a layer of modern make-up composed of ash-rich soil with common brick and tile fragments (L3). The more recent modern material continued to an overall depth of 600mm, where L3 was found to seal a post-hole (F1) which appears to be part of a fence-line removed at the same time or shortly before the modern deposition of L3. From 600mm to 1300mm depth, the excavation revealed dark earth with occasional oyster shell inclusions (L4). At an overall depth of 1.3m, the dark earth sealed a 40mm- to 50mm-thick surface made up of cobbles, medium-sized stones and gravel set into a greenish-yellow discoloured sand (F2). At the northern end of the trench, the dark earth (L4) sealed a linear feature (F3) which cut the gravel surface F2. The fill of F3 included peg-tile and brick fragments. The excavation did not extend below the stony surface (F2) for safety reasons. A 700mm-deep auger probe into the levels below F2 (ie to an overall depth of 2m) produced cores of water-saturated grey/black fine alluvial silt.