EDO4088 - Industrial Development Site, Poundbury, Dorchester; evaluation 1999

Exeter Archaeology conducted an archaeological evaluation of land to the east of Poundbury Farm proposed for industrial development by Dorset Cereals Ltd. Six trenches were excavated by machine. They generally measured 15m x 1.5m, although Trench 5 was only 12 m long. The area covered comprised a 3.3% sample of the site. Site stratigraphy comprised 0.25-0.3m topsoil, above a relatively stone free yellow-brown clay, above clay-with flints natural subsoil. Test pits revealed chalk bedrock at a depth of 1m-1.7m below ground level. The only archaeological feature exposed on site was a large pit in Trench 5. The exact size, shape, and orientation of this feature was not determined. It was thought to be an infilled post-medieval chalk pit, part of a chalk pit recorded just to the NE of the development site, as depicted on the 1902 OS map and that the associated prehistoric finds are residual. However, the size, shape and filling are very similar to a series of probably Iron Age or Roman chalk quarry pits found in this area and is probably prehistoric in date.