EDO4034 - The Hutch, Poundbury Road, Dorchester; evaluation 1987

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Wessex Archaeology on a site on the southeast corner of the hillfort of Poundbury Camp, in advance of development in 1987. The aims of the evaluation were limited to establishing the line of the hillfort defences, and to establishing the presence or absence of burials or other archaeological features, which may have been present beside the Roman road that run broadly along the line of the present Poundbury Road. A large L-shaped trench was excavated across the line of the hillfort defences and parallel to the presumed line of the Roman road. Two other small trenches were cut across the line of the outer defences, but were not excavated. The line of the inner ditch of the hillfort defences was exposed at the northern end of the trench. Towards the southern end of the excavation, the outer ditch was exposed in three places and a partial section was cut through it. This section revealed a shallow V-shaped profile, 7.5m wide and over 1.8m deep. The lower exposed part of the ditch was filled with a layer of vacuous chalk rubble, probably collapse from the sides of the ditch. The remainder of the ditch was filled with a homogeneous light brown calcareous soil. No finds were recovered. The excavators thought that the outer ditch was unfinished and had been deliberately infilled soon after excavation, based on the profile of the partial section. However, the scale of the ditch section is very similar to that seen elsewhere and without a section dug to the full depth, this interpretation must remain uncertain. The only other feature revealed was at the southern end of the trench and was probably the edge of a late post-medieval or early modern rubbish dump. No burials were revealed.