Trial trenching follwed by a watching brief revealed sporadic evidence of a Roman cemetary area, including an inhumed cremation burial, an undated east- west inhumation grave - like feature and an unstratified Roman pot, as well as scatters of Roman Finds.<1>
The grave- like feature was uncovered in trench 4. It's size and orientation suggests that it may be a truncated inhumation burial, although no bones or grave- goods were present. The other four trenches revealed only post- medieval or modern levels.<1>
The watching brief was maintained on site until June1996. Two Roman grey vessels were recovered during the watching brief; one (unstratified) did not contain bone but probably derived from a burial, the other was in situ and contained cremated bone. The inhumed cremation is of broad C1- C3 date and probably belonged (Togeather with earlier urns found in the 1840's; see PRN 11799) to a widespread cemetary area.<1> The finds from the site, togeather with the detailed site records, will be archived with Colchester Museums.<2><3>

The evaluation trenches demonstrated that, despite extensive modern disturbance, significant archaeological remains such as Roman burials may well be present, albeit sporadically within the development area.<1>
Post medieval ditches associated with Colchester seige 1648.<4>