A Roman building was discovered during excavations for a subway at the bottom of Balkerne Hill in 1976. The remains consisted of waterlogged and perfectly preserved wooden piles still in situ together with part of a damaged mortar foundation. The piles had been driven into the base of the buildings foundation trench and were presumably intended to make the foundations more stable. No floor levels were found but the highest surviving Roman levels were about 0.8m above the tops of the piles giving some indication of the original depth of the foundation. The building may have been part of a complex of structures located around the Victorian waterworks to the west (see ECC362).<1>