No. 3 St Botolph’s Church Walk, Colchester, Essex

Between 8th January and 16th March 2020 Oxford Archaeology (OA) East monitored emergency excavation works for sewer repairs at the rear of No. 3 St Botolph’s Church Walk, St Botolph’s Street, Colchester, Essex. The works were located within the scheduled monument of St Botolph’s Priory (located to the east) and north-west of the later St Botolph’s church, the cemetery wall of which forms the northern boundary of the site. Although the site was positioned outside the Roman wall, remains of a Late Roman building had previously been identified to the north-east, close to the priory church.
Disturbed deposits were revealed in the upper levels of the trenching, notably in the northern part of the site (Trench 1), with contamination and water ingress associated with the damaged sewer pipe being a factor throughout. Trenching for a new pipe to the south (Trench 2) revealed a number of earlier deposits, some of which yielded a small quantity of Roman ceramic building material, a possible iron trumpet brooch and fragments of a highly decorated German Werra slipware dish of post-medieval date.