Westway/Sheepen Place, Colchester, Essex: archaeological evaluation – November 1997

An evaluation on the car park east of Westway and north of Sheepen Place, Colchester, Essex has shown that there is virtually no survival of significant archaeological deposits on this site. The deposits exposed in the evaluation consist primarily of the foundations of a recent factory, lying on top of several metres of disturbed Victorian topsoil. In only one location (Trench 3) were there any pre-Victorian remains – in this case a patch of dumped gravel lying over the natural clay subsoil. To judge by the very abraded finds, this gravel was dumped in Roman times, presumably to raise local ground level. Finds were restricted to several pieces of fired clay and a piece of abraded pottery from the dumped gravel. Many Victorian and early 20th century glass bottles or fragments were found during the evaluation. These were not kept. Also identified from the Victorian horizons were several dateable ironstone fragments. Likewise, these were noted but not retained.