EDO1361 - Atlantic Road, Swanage; salvage record 1953

A Roman-British inhumation burial was discovered during building operations in Atlantic Road, about 100 yards SSW of the Cottage Hospital, Swanage on 27th August 1953. The burial was unusual in that the grave comprise two dry stone walls 6ft 4 ins long and 18 ins high. These were capped by two layers of large slabs of 'blue rag' a local limestone. The ends were not built up. The skeleton lay in an extended supine position with the head to the SE and was of an adult male. Three dozen iron nails found along the edges of the cist suggest that the body had been laid in a wooden coffin. A bronze brooch dating from the middle of the 2nd century AD was recovered from spoil removed from the grave. [1][2]