A trial trench was excavated by Colchester Archaeology Group in 1990/1 across the line of a cropmark recorded by aerial photography, defining the line of a probable Roman road (four ditches of a three-track Roman road, aligned NNW-SSE), which is partly on the line of Great Tey Road; the excavation trench was about 200 metres northwards from the point at which the modern road deviates from the straight line, on the south side of Tey Brook.<1> Initially, a limited strip, 11 x 2m, across half the supposed road, was investigated in order to identify quickly the features giving rise to the crop-mark. The topsoil was removed by spade to a depth of about 25cm and then the northern half of the strip, 11 x 1m, was excavated wholly by trowel, while the southern half was left for later examination. The trench was subsequently extended both westwards and eastwards across all four linear cropmarks - the final length of the trench was 22.5 metres. Thin layers of flint were defined between the two central ditches. A gully and hollows were defined to the west of the westernmost ditch 8. The majority of the sherds were coarse and handmade, and containing flint temper. They were dated to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age. Other fragments were darker in colour with smaller temper particles and were dated to later in the Iron Age, while a few wheel-made pieces originated from the Romano-British period. A small sherd of white flagon was found in the upper fill of ditch 6. A substantial fragment of tegula, including flange, was also found in ditch 6. Numerous pieces of Roman tile have been found on the surface in the adjacent field northwards, indicative of a villa-type building.