The Colchester Archaeological Trust undertook a watching brief during the construction of a row of town-houses at 'The Meadows' site (Tansley House) in the new Knowledge Gateway development on the Colchester campus of the University of Essex. Nineteen archaeological features were identified and recorded during the monitoring. Based on the pottery, it is probable that they date to the period of the mid-late 1st century BC to the AD mid 1st century. The archaeological monitoring took place over a period of six weeks and consisted of nine visits. The removal of topsoil from the area of Townhouse ‘Row B’ and from the southern end of the eastern service trench was carried out under continuous archaeological supervision. The remainder of the eastern service-trench and the large service-trench to the west of Townhouse ‘Row B’ (Fig 3) were both examined after they had been excavated. The western service-trench was approximately 1.5 m deep. The eastern service-trench was a minimum of 1.0 m deep; it had been partially infilled prior to the arrival of the CAT archaeologist. Those features within the footprint of Townhouse ‘Row B’ were covered by a piling mat within minutes of being exposed and were, therefore, not excavated. The scale of the work undertaken means that it is not possible to say for certain what these features represent; the ?post-holes may have been parts of buildings or fence lines, the ?linear features may have been field boundaries or enclosure ditches, and the ?pits could have been used for the disposal of industrial and/or domestic waste. Furthermore, one feature may have been an oven and two others could have been pyre-related features. Pottery sherds from some of the features may suggest domestic activity in the vicinity, whereas the fired clay and slag indicates that some light industrial activity was occurring on or around the site. Based on the pottery-dating evidence, the activity at The Meadows site has been dated to the period of the mid-late 1st century BC to the AD mid 1st century. Archaeological features and finds dating to this period were also identified in four trial-trenches excavated to the east of The Meadows site during the ECC FAU evaluation in 2004. Together, these findings suggest that there was probably a rural settlement, perhaps a farmstead, located in this area during the Late Iron Age.