The earliest feature encountered at the Colchester Royal Grammar School 2005 excavation was a ditch, running WNW to ESE. It was sealed by patches of phase 2 pyre burning and cut by the phase 2 roadside ditch. The cutting and eventual filling of this ditch must therefore pre-date the creation of the Gosbecks Roman Road. The ditch was excavated at two places and also seen in section at two points during the watching brief. Despite this, the exact width is unknown. Where observed on the surface of the site, its width varied between 4m and 1.2m, yet in section it was 1.8m wide and 0.9m deep below excavated site level. The variable width of the ditch suggests that it was made up of a series of pits of different sizes.

Pottery from the ditch was quite plentiful and includes pre-Flavian and Claudio-Neronian samian wares, plus other coarse wares of 1st- to early 2nd-century type. From the [pottery alone, one could argue a date for the filling in of the ditches in the early 2nd century AD, but this must be too late, since the Gosbecks road (which seals the ditch) must presumably have been operational by the later 1st century AD to allow access from the Roman town to the temple and theatre at Gosbecks. It is likely, therefore, that the ditch is early Roman (Claudio-Neronian?) in origin, and had been filled in by the later 1st century AD (late Flavian period?).<1>