the Trust’s review of the year: 2016

The Trust has enjoyed another very busy, successful and interesting year in 2016. We have been working in the construction industry for over 50 years and we are a registered archaeological field unit with the Chartered Institite for Archaeologists. We provide archaeological services to our clients to fulfil archaeological conditions as part of the planning process. We are well known as the Colchester specialists – but we do cover the whole of Essex, and also undertake projects in Suffolk and Hertfordshire. We are commissioned by clients ranging from major construction companies and developers, local government, landowners, and the Colchester Archaeological Group, to small businesses and homeowners, and we undertake the whole range of archaeological projects and services.

We have undertaken fieldwork projects from Walton-on-the-Naze, Clacton, West Mersea and Maldon on the north-east Essex coast, through Billericay, Braintree, Chelmsford, Harlow and Brentwood in mid Essex, to Canewdon in south Essex and Upminster, South Weald and Laindon in west Essex. We have also undertaken fieldwork projects in Suffolk, at Bucklesham, Hollesley, East Bergholt, Newton, Lavenham, and Haverhill, and a building recording project at St Neots in Cambridgeshire! We conduct a large number of projects and fieldwork projects in Colchester, including within the old Colchester garrison, where our HQ is located. In Colchester, our projects and fieldwork projects have included sites or buildings at Stanway, Balkerne Gate, Gosbecks Road, the University of Essex, St Helena School, the Castle Park, Sheepen Road, Wivenhoe, Playgolf Colchester, the High Street, Lexden, the Colchester Holiday Park, Maldon Road, Eld Lane, the Abbey Field, Colchester County High School for Girls, Trinity Street, Roman Road, Middleborough, the Mercury Theatre, and Priory Street…

This year we have expanded our team, both indoors and on site. We have undertaken a large number of projects and fieldwork projects (about 140) and we have completed 134 reports. The projects and fieldwork projects which we have undertaken range from desk-based assessments, heritage statements and heritage asset assessments, etc to watching briefs, monitoring and recording, evaluations, excavations and post-excavation work. The range and variety of our work is really interesting, in terms of geographical location, site, client, project, and even the archaeology – which ranges from remarkable archaeological evidence to negative evidence!

The archaeological highlights of our year have been the initial results of the post-excavation study of the remarkable Roman foodstuffs from our excavation within the Williams & Griffin store (now Fenwick) in the High Street at Colchester in 2014, and the rare Roman burial which had included a special dish of meat and which we excavated at the Flagstaff House complex within the old Colchester garrison, just round the corner from our HQ, in October. (Read more about these in this blog at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=33680 , www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=33620 and www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=32255 .) It was also great to hold the open day in February when, for the frst time, visitors were able to view the exposed parts of the remains of the monumental Roman arcade in the High Street at Colchester.

At our Roman circus centre, we installed new railings and created a visitor car-park. We held special open days, presented a summer season of free events, provided free guided tours, maintained the tea room, and welcomed visitors and pre-booked school visits and group visits. The Colchester Archaeological Group (CAG) now present their weekly winter lectures here and the Colchester Young Archaeologists’ Club (YAC) hold most of their monthly meetings here.

We are maintaining our online archive and also, now, working on an extension of the archive. We manage two web-sites, including our blog, and we contribute to the Colchester Historic Environment Record and the Essex Historic Environment Record and to the national archaeological database OASIS. We give talks to local groups by invitation. We support the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust (FCAT) and we are supported by a team of dedicated volunteers. The Trust is very pleased to be featured in the walkway of the Colchester Fenwick store. The current issue of our annual magazine – The Colchester Archaeologist – will be available in local shops from the New Year. You can read our fieldwork reports online at http://cat.essex.ac.uk/ and all our posts on sites and finds and interesting things in this blog. You can keep up to date with our work by joining FCAT and you can even follow us on Twitter and on Facebook!

We have enjoyed 2016 and we are looking forward to 2017! – and we will be back on site on the 2nd January…

With many thanks to our clients, professional associates, partners and agencies, to our external specialists, to our great volunteers, to our tea room customers and circus centre visitors, to all our visitors to the blog and all our followers on Twitter and on Facebook.
Trust director Philip adds, ‘And thanks, of course, to our hard-working team of archaeologists and support staff who have made 2016 a record-breaker in many ways!’

The images show some interesting site photo.s from our large archive: of the chapel at Abbey Farm in Coggeshall; the sensory garden in Colchester Castle Park: the caravan park at Bucklesham in Suffolk; and construction works at the Flagstaff House complex in Colchester. [Further images to follow.]

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