EDO4168 - Eldridge Pope Brewery Site, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester, Evaluation Trench 4.

Wessex Archaeology undertook an archaeological evaluation on land within the area of the former Eldridge Pope Brewery on the south side of Dorchester. Five machine-dug test pits and two trenches, one 6m and the other 20 m in length, were excavated at various points, according to access, to provide an assessment of deposits across the site and any likely levels of truncation. Trench 4, a machine excavated test pit measuring 3m x 1.4m, was aligned N-S and located in the central part of the western end of the site, through the floor of the former bottling plant. 0.9m of Made Ground was revealed above a soil profile, partially intact and partially disturbed by the construction of the warehouse. The soils comprised a 0.3m thick layer of dark brown silty topsoil above an orange/brown silty clay subsoil. The bedrock dipped away to the north from 65.94m OD at the south end of the trench to 65.54m OD at the north end. The soil profile suggested that this was a natural slope rather than archaeological.