EDO3941 - Land to the West of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester; evaluation (Trench 19)

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 19 was 31.4m long and aligned E-W. Clay-with-flint natural subsoil was encountered at a depth of 0.9m below ground level. Due to a drop in the level of the natural clay-with flints, a colluvial soil had buit up in this trench, sealing and protecting a relict soil. The colluvium contained Bronze Age and Late Iron Age/Romano-British pottery. Two features were cut into the natural, sealed by the buried soil; one was interpreted as tree root disturbance, the other was an ESE-WNW aligned 'V' profiled ditch with worked flint in its upper fill, which may be part of the extensive Bronze Age field system that previously existed in this area.