An east-west Roman street was observed during the excavation of a sewer trench on the site of Lewis's Gardens in 1958/9. The street was bounded on its southern edge by what appeared to be a roadside ditch (see MCC1712). There were at least three or four distinct road levels.<1>

The street was revealed during groundwork for a new day nursery in the grounds of East Hill House (ECC526). The street was revealed during a machine strip when it was found to be covered in places by only 0.5m of topsoil. The street had been dug away in places by large post-medieval pits (see MCC1479). The metalling did not extend to the eastern boundary of the contractors trench. Metalling from the street was also picked up further to the west within a service trench. The area of good solid metalling was 6.5m wide and was bound by two patches of mortar and soil resembling robber trenches, thus giving the most likely position of the street.<2>

An evaluation was undertaken in response to a proposal to extend the Mulberry Tree day nursery over an adjacent car-park. A small trench measuring 1.5m x 1m was opened with the primary objective of establishing the depth of the top of the Roman levels beneath the car park. A survey of comparative levels was also carried out, three boreholes 150mm x approx 6m deep were drilled concurrently by engineers and some observations of stratigraphic relevance were noted. Within the evaluation trench the upper Roman levels were reached at a depth of 23.7m OD. This consisted of yellowish brown sandy clay loam with some gravels and oyster shells. This was interpreted as dumped material alongside the street for use as a footway, or alternatively demolition debris.<3>