A watching brief was carried out by Colchester Archaeological Trust in February 2015 during excavations of seven geo-technical boreholes as part of a survey ahead of locating new sports facilities, with a view to mitigating any impact on archaeological deposits. Excavation was carried out through a modern topsoil (L1) and into and accumulation horizon (L2) on to natural deposits of hillwash or coluvilum into deposits of glacial gravels to a final depth of between 5-6m. There were no archaeological features or distinct archaeological horizons identified during the excavation of the boreholes. Recovered finds were residual and came from post Roman deposits (the topsoil L1 and the accumulation horizon L2). The recovered material was a mixture of modern and roman material including fragments of coal, pegtile and concrete as well as roman mortar tile and building stone. <1>