An archaeological watching brief at the west end of Northgate Street, Colchester, Essex: May 2009

A watching brief was carried out on the groundworks for the connection of a water supply to new properties on land between Northgate Street and Short Cut Road, at the west end of Northgate Street. Contractors hand-excavated a small trench in the southern half of the highway (opposite no 6), to reveal approximately 300mm of tarmac and hogging overlying a 500mm-thick deposit of dark brown silty loam. The loam contained abundant modern building material along with residual fragments of Roman tile and septaria. An armoured electrical cable was laid into this trench. L2 was cut at the north and south ends of the trench by service runs. Beneath L2 was a dark brown silty clay with abundant fragments of peg-tile, small stones and oyster shells. No further reduction in level was required past this point and no significant archaeological horizon was encountered during the watching brief.