Military burial ground, Military Road, Colchester.

In 1804, land in Military Road was bought for a military burial ground to serve Colchester's Napoleonic garrison. Five hundred and sixty-four people were buried on the site between 1807 and 1812 (ERO D/P 203/1/4). There are four gravestones around the perimeter of the Garrison Church site, and the only legible one is dated to 1809. These were presumably cleared away from their original positions when the graveyard was 'tidied up’. Burial may have continued here until as late as 1815, when the Napoleonic Wars ended, and possibly beyond that date. The Garrison Church was erected over the site of the burial ground.<1> The latter is still shown as ‘Grave Yard’ as late as the 1876 Ordnance Survey, but it is unclear if anybody had been buried here after the Napoleonic Wars. The MoD holds a 'Register of Burials’ dated 1856-1858 which lists 63 burials under the heading of ‘Burials of those belonging to the Camp at Colchester’, thus post-dating the construction of the church. However, it is uncertain whether these relate to the main Colchester cemetery churchyard or to the Garrison Church specifically. The former is more likely, given the lack of surviving gravestones of that period at the Garrison Church.<2>

A trial-trenched evaluation (four trenches) was undertaken by Colchester Archaeological Trust in 2007, following geophysical survey by Tim Dennis. This work revealed twelve linear features (at c.0.9m below ground level), which were interpreted as graves and intercutting graves (further excavation would be needed to confirm that these features were graves). No human bone was exposed.<2><3>