During excavations at Sheepen in 1970 (ECC488), an early Roman timber-lined cellar was discovered. The cellar consisted of a large pit with vertical walls cut 1.5m into the natural gravel in which a rectangular structure 2.8m x 4.5m had been constructed. Against the north and south walls the remains of six carbonised timber upright posts survived up to 600mm above the floor level. Between the posts and the walls of the pit were horizontal retaining planks which had also been preserved through burning. The cellar floor had also been planked with floor boards. The entrance to the cellar was marked by a gravel ramp which was probably the base for timber steps. A thick deposit of burnt daub represented the destruction debris from the overlying building. Much of the burnt daub had impressions of wattle and some showed well-executed pargetting on the other side. No evidence of the building survived above the cellar but this was probably a result of natural erosion. Both the cellar and the building had been destroyed in the Boudican destruction of AD 60/1.
The surrounding area was heavily pitted. The fills of these pits showed a continuation of the industrial (metal working) activity represented at the earlier compound (see MCC1372) on the site.<1>