Ten evaluation trenches (1.8m wide, and total length, 200m) were excavated by Colchester Archaeological Trust in May 2015, positioned across the area of the proposed development. This work identified 18 archaeological features.<1> These were a Middle Iron Age ditch, ten post-medieval pits and a ditch, and seven undated features (of which two may be prehistoric, and five may be post-medieval). One of the post-medieval ditches aligns with current property boundaries running south of Manningtree Road. This, along with a ditch in an adjacent trench, may be part of a farm trackway grubbed out before the 1870s (nothing shows here on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey). The Middle Iron Age ditch may be part of the extensive area of cropmarks to the north and east of this site. There is one plotted cropmark line which heads towards the eastern site boundary, but it would need to change direction to be on the same alignment as the ditch excavated at Hallfields. Two other (undated) features may be prehistoric, and part of the cropmark complex. The evaluation was followed by a small excavation in June 2015 (ECC3564; CAT Report 848).<2>