This collection comprises reports, images, site records, and CAD files from an archaeological evaluation and trial-trenching. This was carried out on land at The Sweyne Park Secondary School, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6, in advance of the construction of a new school block, by Colchester Archaeological Trust in March 2021.

The aim of the archaeological evaluation was to record the extent of any surviving archaeological deposits and to assess the archaeological potential of the site to allow the ECCHEA (Essex County Council Historic Environment Advisor) to determine if further investigation is required.

One trial-trench was machine-excavated under the supervision of a CAT (Colchester Archaeological Trust) archaeologist. The trial-trench was 38m long and 1.8m wide, and aligned north-east to south-west. Six prehistoric features were excavated, originating from two distinct phases of activity. Towards the south end of the trench was a ditch aligned north-west/south-east, containing Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age pottery. The centre of the trench contained a group of features centred around a Late Iron Age curvilinear ditch, including several postholes. These features together may represent the western extent of a roundhouse. Reinforcing this interpretation is the recovery of several large fragments of fired clay, interpreted as being from a wattle-and-daub structure.