EDO3856 - 2 Linden Avenue, Evaluation Trench 3

Terrain Archaeology carried out an evaluation in the garden of 2 Linden Avenue, Dorchester in February 2004.Four small engineering test pits in the northern part of the garden were cleaned and recorded (trenches 1, 4, 5, & 6) and a further two machine-trenches were excavated in the southern part of the site (trenches 2 & 3). Across the site, overlying the natural chalk, was a layer of garden soil representing the earlier garden prior to the construction of the present house in the 1960s. Over this were levelling layers of construction debris and soil, part of the landscaping for the present garden. Two pits filled with builder’s debris were found in the northwest part of the site. Trench 3 measured 2.6m x 1m and was excavated to a maximum depth of 0.95m in the southern part of the garden, west of Trench 2. The weathered surface of the natural chalk lay at a depth of 0.8m (63.83- 63.88m above OD). A shallow N-S aligned linear feature cutting the chalk was interpreted as a probably ephemeral cultivation feature sealed below garden soils.