Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1125: summary

Archaeological evaluation and monitoring at 5-6 St Nicholas Street and 60 Culver Street East, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1DW: April 2017
by Laura Pooley (with contributions from Stephen Benfield, Lisa Gray, Alec Wade, Sarah Carter)

Date report completed: July 2017, revised September 2017
Location: 5-6 St Nicholas Street and 60 Culver Street East, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1DW
Map reference(s): TL 99818 25176
File size: kb
Project type: Evaluation and monitoring
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. An archaeological evaluation and monitoring was carried out at 5-6 St Nicholas Street and 60 Culver Street East (the former Jacks Store), Colchester in advance of the creation of a café space at ground floor level with seven one bed residential units. As well as being located within Insula 30 of the Roman town, 5-6 St Nicholas Street is thought to have originated in the 17th century with later phases of extensions and alterations.

Two test-pits were excavated by hand. Both test-pits appear to have been located in the rear yard of the 17th century building and revealed evidence for 19th and 20th century extensions and 17th-18th century activity in the yard. Remains pre-dating the 17th century building were identified at depths of approximately 1m below current ground level (25.56m AOD). They included later medieval layers, an earlier medieval pit, possible Roman layers and a possible Roman burnt floor, beam slot and posthole. Excavation ceased at depths of 24.6m (TP2) and 24.82m (TP1) AOD with many of the Roman layers not fully excavated.

The monitoring of two trial-holes revealed a modern brick wall (TH2) and modern/postmedieval layers (TH3). Three window samples located natural sands at a depth of between 2.2-2.9m below current ground level (24.36-23.66m AOD). These depths suggest that archaeological contexts continue for a depth of approximately 1m below the limit of excavation in test-pit 1 and 0.46m in test-pit 2.