EDO3822 - Damers First School,Damers Road, Evaluation Trench 1

Archaeological investigations by means of trench excavation on two proposed sites for the new Damers First School, Dorchester, Dorset was carried out by AC archaeology during August 2005. (1) This work followed an earlier geophysical survey of both sites which identified a number of subsurface magnetic anomalies indicating the presence of archaeological activity.(2) The investigations comprised the machine-excavation of five trenches on the existing Damers First School site and eight trenches on a proposed site immediately west of Poundbury Cemetery. The five trenches on the existing First School site totalled 50m in length, each 10m long and 1.6m wide. Topsoil and overburden were removed by mechanical excavator. Machining ceased on top of natural subsoil, or intact archaeological deposits. All five trenches revealed similar, relatively deep soil sequences, with no evidence for archaeological features or artefacts. Several of the trenches were positioned to target anomalies identified on the geophysical survey, but none were shown to exist. Trench 1 was aligned approximately N-S, located on level ground in the NW portion of the site and excavated to a maximum depth of 0.55m on top of natural upper chalk. The topsoil was 0.3m thick on top of subsoil at 0.3-0.55m. No archaeological finds or deposits were recorded.