Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 678: summary

Archaeological monitoring at ‘The Meadows’, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex - July-September 2012
by Adam Wightman (with contributions from Stephen Benfield)

Date report completed: March 2013
Location: ‘The Meadows’, Boundary Road, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex
Map reference(s): TM 0242 2424 (c)
File size: 5,734 kb
Project type: Archaeological watching brief
Significance of the results: **
Keywords: Late Iron Age, features, pottery, ?farmstead

Summary. The Colchester Archaeological Trust undertook a watching brief during the construction of a row of town-houses at 'The Meadows' site in the new Knowledge Gateway development on the Colchester campus of the University of Essex. Nineteen archaeological features were identified and recorded during the monitoring. Based on the pottery-dating evidence, it is probable that they date to the period of the mid-late 1st century BC to the AD mid 1st century. Archaeological features and finds dating to this period were also identified in four trial-trenches excavated to the east of The Meadows site during the ECC FAU evaluation in 2004. Together, these findings suggest that there was probably a rural settlement, perhaps a farmstead, located in this area during the Late Iron Age.