Early Medieval stone built hall house within the upper bailey of (and to the south of) Colchester Castle.<3>

In 1931-2 excavations were conducted in the Castle upper bailey by Dr P.G. Laver and a series of walls were found. A complete plan of the range could not be recovered and the walls were traced by means of trenches and no substantial floor levels were found. The buildings (there was the plan of one complete building, but clearly more buildings) probaby formed part of the living quarters of the first-phase keep. Walls were constructed of septaria with quoins of reused Roman tile.

The plan contains a number of anomalies and may not be an accurate guide to the remains. The earliest structure found was a ground-floor hall measuring internally 6.1 x 15.8m, with two external doorways apparent. A number of alterations and additions in stone were made to the original stone hall, including the addition of a fire place in the west wall. Although the southern end of the range backed onto the bailey rampart or curtain wall, it could not have been hard up against it because there was a doorway on that side. <1><2>