EDO4035 - Poundbury Pipe-Line, Dorchester; excavation 1986

A small 1m x 7m trench was hand excavated under the direction of W.G. Putnam for Wessex Archaeology, in advance of the construction of a water pipe by Wessex Water from their headquarters on Bridport Road to Charminster. The excavation was located at the point where the water pipe-line was expected to cut the predicted course of the aqueduct, as shown on the OS maps. It lay on the southern edge of the former WWII army camp. The top 1m of deposits comprised rubbish from the former WWII Poundbury West army camp. Below this was a ploughsoil containing 18th century pottery, which lay above chalk bedrock. No visible trace of the aqueduct was recorded and it must be assumed that either it lay to the north and has been terraced away by construction of the Poundbury West Industrial Estate, or it lay to the south. The pipe-line was observed south of the trench with this in mind, but no trace of the aqueduct was seen for at least 12m south.