An archaeological evaluation at St Helena School, Sheepen Road, Colchester, Essex: February 2007

Six evaluation trenches (totalling 87m by 1.6m) were located within the St Helena School site in advance of plans to extend the school car-park. A total of 18 features were recorded: 10 Roman (seven pits, one wall foundation, one ditch and one metalled surface); one mid/late Bronze Age pit; one post-Medieval ditch; six undated features (four pits and two ditches); and one natural feature. Significantly, the Roman wall foundation appears to have been part of the precinct wall for the late 1st century Roman temple known to have been located on the site. A large quantity of Roman finds were also recorded including two coins which belong to the postconquest pre-Boudican occupation of Sheepen, a brooch fragment and briquetage which may also date to before AD 60/1, and a number of pottery sherds dating primarily from the 1st to the early 2nd century.