EDO4102 - Stationmaster's House, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester; excavation 1988

The redevelopment and extension of the old Stationmaster's house afforded an opportunity for Wessex Archaeology to investigate further a flanking ditch to the Roman Road between Dorchester and Weymouth observed during construction of an access road to Dorchester South Station in 1986 (1). In December 1988 a single machine cut trench revealed the ditch parallel to Weymouth Avenue. It measured 1.92m wide and 0.95m deep, with a 'v' shaped profile. No conclusive evidence was recovered to date the ditch but it seems likely that it formed part of the Roman Road. It is also the same size, shape and alignment to one found on the opposite side of the road in the garden of Mentone Lodge, which probably silted up between the mid 2nd and late 3rd century AD (RCHME, 1970, 540). (2) Ploughmarks, also revealed in the trench, were stratigraphically later than the ditch. The excavation was followed by a watching brief during construction in January 1989. This did not reveal any further archaeological features because the construction trenches were not deep enough.