EDO3928 - Land to the West of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester; Evaluation Trench 5

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned to undertake an archaeological evaluation of land to the west of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester, in advance of the proposed Phase II Poundbury development. The site was known to contain three undated linear cropmarks and a postulated post-medieval chalk pit. Twenty-three machine-excavated trenches were investigated, each measuring at least 1.8m x 30m and totalling c. 1296 square metres. Trench 5 was 31.4m long and aligned N-S. Natural Clay-with-flint subsoil was encountered at a depth of 0.4m below ground level. A shallow E-W aligned ditch with a wide 'U' shaped profile was observed cutting the natural subsoil. No finds were recovered from the fill but it probably dates to the late 2nd-1st millenium BC and forms part of a rectilinear field system.