Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 571: summary

An archaeological watching brief at Town Wall House, 4 Balkerne Hill, Colchester, Essex: August 2010
by Donald Shimmin

Date report completed: October 2010
Location: Town Wall House, 4 Balkerne Hill, Colchester, Essex
Map reference(s): TL 9925 2502
File size: 1,687 kb
Project type: Watching brief
Significance of the results: neg
Keywords: town wall, Balkerne Hill

Summary. An archaeological watching brief took place during the digging of two small trenches on land to the south of Town Wall House, Balkerne Hill, Colchester, Essex. The site lies close to a surviving stretch of the Roman town wall, which is a scheduled ancient monument, at the south-west corner of the Roman and medieval walled town. The two trenches (T1, T2) were dug by the contractors to locate a water pipe. Below the existing surface, there was a yellowish-brown sandy deposit in T1, which was the backfill of modern service trenches. However, natural sand was probably observed in the north-western edge of T1 at a depth of 0.72 m below the modern ground-level. T1 was located on or just inside the line of the town wall, but below the level of the bottom of the foundation. Below the existing surface in T2 was a dark greyish-brown loamy deposit, which was mainly the backfill of modern service trenches. T2 was situated just outside the line of the town wall, near the inner edge of the town ditch. In conclusion, no significant archaeological remains were uncovered. A small quantity of unstratified finds were recovered from the trenches. This consisted of post-medieval/modern pottery, glass, tile, animal bone and copper-alloy washer, and a Roman pot sherd was found in T2.