The main Roman street of Colchester from the Balkern Gate to East Gate. In the Balkerne gateway there are 19" of gravel metalling lying on 9" hard rammed loam then sand. <1> <2> At TL 99352519 the metalling was partly revealed in a pit for a petrol pump in the Grosvenor Garage at a point 140ft W of the building line at the top of North Hill. Section in source 1; this shows a possible early roadway overlain by a layer of rubbish containing oyster shells, a make up of fairly clean grey clay followed by strong road metalling of gravel cambered up to 10" thick. The grey clay and the gravel above has the appearance of a repair but "can hardly have formed a good road surface". Final layer is an irregular heap of red daub representing burnt walls of surrounding buildings. A parish boundary follows party walls and fences from the S side of the S carriageway of the gate to the modern building face of North Hill. This should approximately represent the S side of the Roman main street. Thereafter it lies under High Street. The metalling has been seen at each end and S of the forum. <1> At Tl 99872523, outside the S wall of the forum the Norman ditch of the castle has left in position part of the Roman street, of which several layers are preserved. N of the roadway was a sloping footwalk of concrete, divided from the roadway by a slot which could have hed a stone or wood kerb. When the road was later made up with gravel on yellow sand, a second footway of concrete was laid. Contemporary with the subsequent third surface was a fine tile drain set in the roadway. Section, photo in source 1. <1> At TM 00012525 in July 1921 drainage trenches cut in the middle of the High Street 400t W of the site of the East Gate revealed a considerable length of the retaining wall of the Roman main street, with metalling on its S side. Objects found (now in Colchester Museum) include part of the skull of a small child and a bronze brooch. <1> <3> An entry in Laver's diary 1922 notes that an excavation on the S side of the High Street opposite Winsley's house and E of the gate of the Minories garden exposed part of the cobbled surface of the Roman street. The trench cut was 19ft from the S building line, and the street here "at least 31ft wide". <1> <4> Another exposeure made April 1937 when "a water main laid outside Winsley's house showed road metalling beginning opposite the W side of the W window and extending to the centre of the E window, c.18" below the surface. Tracing the line from the observed points, ie, from the N edge of the Roman street here to the N side of the main carriageway of the Balkerne Gate it will also point to the E gate but will put the main Roman street "in a very strange position". From here (East Gate) to East Stockwell Street it lies under modern buildings and its N edge would be under the N pavement of High Street where walls of Roman buildings have been found but no street (12494). From Head Street to West Stockwell Street it would run off the line of High Street and under the buildings of the N side running exactly over the site of the Roman pottery shop (12492), then under the George Hotel over a red pavement (12498). S of the forum it would run through a Roman structure (13003) whereas these remains have a street to their S. Therefore conclude that this E-W street was not straight but diverted southwards to pass S of 13003 following the rest of the grid as far as the crossroads east of 13003. <1> Other refs. <5> <6> <7>