Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 544: summary

An archaeological evaluation by trial-trenching at St Helena School, Colchester, Essex: March 2010
by Ben Holloway and Howard Brooks

Date report completed: April 2010
Location: St Helena School, Sheepen Road, Colchester, Essex
Map reference(s): TL9897025770
File size: 417 kb
Project type: Evaluation
Significance of the results: **
Keywords: Roman temple, temenos, Roman road, Roman pit

Summary. The St Helena School site lies on the eastern side of the nationally important Late Iron Age and early Roman site of Sheepen, which is the northern focus of the oppidum of Camulodunum.

An evaluation by a single trial trench on the site of a proposed new building has revealed a gravelled surface and a Roman pit. The gravel surface may have been associated with the adjacent Roman Temple 2, whose eastern temenos wall lies 35m to the west, or (less likely) it may have been the surface of a minor gravel road running along the eastern side of the temple temenos.

Finds from this evaluation are of early Roman date, which is in keeping with other finds from Sheepen and the St Helena School site.