A watching brief was carried out by Colchester Archaeological Trust during the excavation of the footings for a new house site on the Rawstorn Road frontage (CBC planning application 110820).<1> The dimensions of the footings trenches varied, but were mostly approximately 60cm wide and 110cm deep. The lower part of the trenches (ie, below 70-80cm) was generally cut into undisturbed natural sand. The upper parts of the sides of the footing trenches, to between 30-50cm below the site surface, revealed a dark, sandy loam L2, containing a range of modern and post-medieval finds including ceramic building material (CBM). Parts of pits were visible in some trenches on the southern edge of the site, including a large pit (F5) at the northeast corner of the new footings. All finds associated with the pits were modern, and there was no clear indication that any pit was other than modern. Large parts of the sections of the southern footing trench were obscured by shuttering, and so could not be observed (although this shuttering was in place because of significant collapse due to unconsolidated pit fills). In the centre of the plot for the new building an east-west footing trench cut through a gravel surface (F4). This was best observed in the north section of this trench but was also present in the south section, although here it was partly cut away by a later pit. In the northern section the gravel extended unbroken over a distance of approximately 5m, ending approximately 1m short of the east end of the trench. To the west, the gravel ended at the edge of a feature (F6) which was either a small pit or possibly a ditch on the western side of the gravel. For most of its length, the top of gravel F4 lay at between 40-50 cm below the site surface, but towards the western end it was at only about 30cm below the site surface. At that point the gravel was about 15cm thick, but it was more commonly about 10cm thick. There was very little dating evidence for this gravel surface. The only find from it was a sherd of Roman Samian ware (finds no 2) from the base of a Central Gaulish bowl dated c.AD 120-200. Although this might have been a localised surface, gravel metalled lanes or small streets of Roman date have been discovered during previous excavations close to this site. The gravel surface sealed two undated layers: a pale brown sandy loam approximately 20cm thick (a foundation layer for the gravel surface?), and below this a pale silt, approximately 10cm thick (natural?) which sealed natural sand. In the centre of the north section was a small narrow feature (probably a stake-hole) sealed by the sandy loam. A trial trenched evaluation of the site was undertaken in 2011 (CAT Report 613). <2>