During excavations at Crouch Street in 1973 (ECC349) a defensive ditch was discovered sealed by the later sub-floor of a hypocaust (see MCC1235). The ditch cut away an earlier feature which may have been a ditch or pit (see MCC1241). The depth of the ditch could not be established with any certainty but it was thought unlikely to have been any deeper than 2.1m. 'It seems possible that the ..... ditch was dug in the Flavian period when the north-south stretch of the Period 3 town ditch at Balkerne Lane was backfilled' (see MCC539). 'The ditch at Crouch Street was probably on the same line as the Period 3 ditch along the southern side of the town and thus in effect was a southern extension of it'. The ditch probably went out of use in the 2nd century AD.<1>