Archaeological trial-trenching evaluation: land north of Elmstead Road, Colchester, Essex – February 2014

This site on the eastern side of Colchester is close to the projected course of a Roman road and to the Bronze Age barrow cemetery to the south on the Knowledge Gateway site.
Six evaluation trenches (total length 175m) revealed five archaeological features: a medieval pit, three medieval ditches (a trackway?), and a natural pit.
The medieval ditches are probably associated with a medieval phase of Salary Farm, to the south. The western part of the site has been terraced, so that topsoil directly seals natural ground. This (as well as water-logging due to Salary Brook), may account for the lack of archaeological material on the site’s western side.