Near the town wall Alderman AM Jarmin reported on a trench cut along St John's Street and Crouch Street in 1915 and thought because of the great depth of overburden to be in the Roman town ditch. But observations made when the Playhouse Theatre and a warehouse were built in 1925 showed that `to a depth of eight feet over most of the site the soil consisted entitely of Roman tip, containing pottery, animal bones, oyster shells and other remains'. Pottery was particularly abundant on the theatre site. Samian was in great abundance but C4 coins were scarce. <1> <2>