EDO4136 - Magistrates Court, County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester; Trench J

In January 1991 Wessex Archaeology undertook an archaeological evaluation of an area to the west of the South Wing of County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester. The work was undertaken in advance of a proposed extension to the Magistrates Court building. The evaluation comprised the hand-excavation of nine trenches (A-J) to the top of the natural chalk. The trenches were located in available areas either within flower beds, areas of hard-standing or the lawn fronting the County Hall building. The total area examined consisted of 23 square metres. Almost all the trenches lay within the area of a substantial terrace cut into the the north-facing slope during the 1939 construction works for County Hall. The total extent and depth of terracing was not determined, but the southern and western limits presumably lie close to the tail of the rampart of the Roman town defences, and parallel to the frontage of the County Hall building and was up to about 1.5m in depth. All stratification above chalk bedrock had been removed by the construction of this terrace. Trench J measured 3m x 3m, was located towards the south end of the evaluation site and was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.30m. Below the turf the central portion of the trench was disturbed by two modern service trenches. These had been cut through a c. 1m depth of dark brown chalky soils. These soils sealed a deposit of dark brown clay loam at 74.07m OD. This was excavated to no greater than 0.2m in depth and contained 21 large and unabraded sherds (855g) of late 3rd or 4th century AD Black Burnished Ware ( & one sherd of colour coated ware). A single rim of medieval cooking pot was also recovered. The excavation stopped because of safety reasons, chalk bedrock was not observed. This trench seems to lie south of, and therefore undisturbed by, the chalk-cut terrace asociated with the construction of County Hall.