EDO4030 - Land North of Middle Farm, Bridport Road, Dorchester; Evaluation Trench 52

In May 1997 Wessex Archaeology undertook an archaeological field evaluation in connection with proposed development of a parcel of land to the north of Middle Farm, Bridport Road, Dorchester. The evaluation site comprised an area of c. 2 hectares, and was investigated by 12 machine dug trenches (numbered 41-52) totalling 560 square metres or 2.8% of the evaluation area. A uniform sequence of deposits was recorded in all trenches. Topsoil to a maximum depth of 0.33m, sealed a fine brownish-yellow silty clay subsoil varying from 0.18-0.42m in depth. The subsoil sealed natural deposits of clay-with-flints. Trench 52 measured 30m x 1.6m, was aligned NW-SE in the NW quadrant of the evaluation area, and excavated to a maximum depth of 1m. The only archaeological feature exposed was a ditch running N-S on the line of a former field boundary and the former Municipal Boundary of the Borough of Dorchester. This field boundary was still extant in 1995. A further part of this boundary was exposed in Trench 49 to the south.