A watching brief took place during the digging of two small trenches on land to the south of Town Wall House, Balkerne Hill, Colchester. <1> The two trenches (T1 & T2) were dug by the contractors to locate a water pipe. T1 was 0.95m deep. Below the existing surface, there was a yellowish-brown sandy deposit, which was the backfill of modern service trenches. However, natural sand was probably observed in the north-western edge of T1 at a depth of 0.72m below the modern ground level. T1 was located on or just inside the line of the town wall, but below the level of the bottom of the foundation. T2 was 0.9m deep. Below the existing surface, was a dark greyish-brown loamy deposit, which was mainly the backfill of modern service trenches. T2 was situated just outside the line of the town wall, near the inner edge of the town ditch. No significant archaeological remains were uncovered. A small quantity of unstratified finds were recovered from the trenches.