EDO3798 - Forum Centre, Trinity Street, Dorchester; observations and recording 1994

Wessex Archaeology undertook a watching brief between January and June 1994, on the site of the former Wadham Stringer Garage in Trinity Street, Dorchester during groundworks for the construction of the Forum Centre. The area in the west of the site had been truncated down into the natural chalk, but most of the area of the Forum Centre still had surviving Roman stratigraphy. Elements of a substantial Roman building were observed, including part of a corridor with tesselated floor running east-west, which included a previously discovered tesselated surface. This floor butted a wall which still had some purple painted wall plaster remaining. A further series of stone walls and chalk and mortar floors were revealed to the northwest and further west, traces of stone walls with purple painted wall plaster and a tesselated floor were observed. The remains were probably part of a substantial late Roman town house. Immediately to the south was a large chalk-cut terrace running east-west, which may also be Roman in date.