Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1917: summary

The Colchester-to-Gosbecks Roman road: An archaeological excavation on land to the rear of Hedge Drive, Colchester, Essex, CO2 9DT: March 2023
by Laura Pooley and Harvey Furniss (with contributions from Dr Matthew Loughton)

Date report completed: March 2023
Location: Land to the rear of Hedge Drive, Colchester, Essex, CO2 9DT
Map reference(s): TL 97538 23073
File size: 20548 kb
Project type: Excavation
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. An archaeological excavation was carried out on land to the rear of Hedge Drive, Colchester, Essex in advance of the demolition of garages and the construction of three new properties. The projected route of the Colchester-to-Gosbecks Roman road was already known to pass through the development site and the excavation area was positioned to uncover the location of the remains of the road as well as any other archaeological contexts.

The excavation successfully located the remains of the Roman road, which consisted of four ditches defining two narrow footways on either side of a wide central carriageway. The footways were c 2.6m wide and the central carriageway c 7.6m across. The roadside ditches were welldefined at 0.71-1.01m wide and 0.29-0.33m deep. The road surface had not survived.