Watching brief report: 3 Church Street, Colchester, Essex: January-February 2007

The stratigraphical sequence seen outside the building was: down to 1.2m, modern soils and modern drains; from 1.2m to 2.4m, a layer of dumped brown Roman clay; at 2.4m down, a Boudican horizon; below 2.4m, a sandy clay mixture. Inside the building, stratification was clearer. Here, a 10cmthick, pale brown mortar floor with a burnt surface was seen at a depth equivalent to the Boudican material outside the building. A further 0.15m below the mortar floor was a clean clay layer which, at this depth, must be a fortress-period clay floor. A very stiff brown clay layer seen in one of the external holes may be an equivalent layer. Below the fortress period clay floor, the layer of dumped sand – with the equivalent layer seen outside – may be fortress-period make-up for the clay floor above.