Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 709: summary

An archaeological watching brief at Playgolf Colchester, Bakers Lane, Colchester, Essex - January-August 2013
by Don Shimmin (with contributions from Stephen Benfield, Julie Curl)

Date report completed: March 2014
Location: Playgolf Colchester, Bakers Lane, Colchester, Essex
Map reference(s): TL 973 261
File size: 4,582 kb
Project type: Watching brief
Significance of the results: **
Keywords: amphora, enclosure, burial, cremated human bone, iron spearhead, worked bone

Summary. Parts of two Late Iron Age or early Roman burials or burial-related features were uncovered during an archaeological watching brief at Playgolf Colchester, Bakers Lane, Colchester, Essex. They were found during groundwork in advance of the construction of an extension to the clubhouse. The features lay within a large funerary enclosure, initially known from cropmarks. One of the burial features was a Late Iron Age or early Roman unurned cremation burial, from which were recovered an amphora and some worked bone, as well as a quantity of cremated human bone. Nearby, another feature was partially uncovered. From this came fragments of at least five iron spearheads, a couple of sherds of Late Iron Age or early Roman imported pottery, and a small quantity of cremated human bone. The ditch, which formed the western side of the enclosure, was recorded as it crossed the footprint of the extension. The funerary enclosure and the features within it are comparable to the ditched enclosures excavated by CAT at the Stanway gravel quarry between 1987 and 1997. Elsewhere on the Playgolf site, machine-stripping took place for extensions to the car park. These lay outside the enclosure, and the stripping did not go deep enough to reveal any significant archaeological features.