An excavation and watching brief was carried out at 11 Head Street in April 2002, following a fire which destroyed Harpers sports centre, 7-13 Head Street, in September 2000 (CBC planning application F/COL/01/1557).<1> A watching brief was carried out on contractors' work to lower the cellar floor (by mechanical excavator) of 11 Head Street. Two areas were fully excavated by hand, T1 on the NW side of 11 Head Street (3.85 x 1m in area x 1.1-1.4m deep) and T2 on the N side of 11 Head Street (3.7m x 0.95-1.1m wide x 0.8-0.9m deep). The excavation revealed at least three phases of Roman occupation: a fortress-period timber-framed building and a mortared plinth, a building with clay walls burnt in the Boudican revolt, and an early 2nd-century town-house with septaria rubble footings (robbed out in the medieval period). The house featured painted walls and a tessellated floor. No later material was present because of truncation to the site by recent buildings. The watching brief revealed the 16th or 17th century brick cellar walls of a building which burned down in 1834.