EDO4172 - Eldridge Pope Brewery Site, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester; evaluation 2004

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 20m 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. The results indicated that despite some disturbance of deposits on the street frontage of Weymouth Avenue and considerable depths of made ground in the western part of the site, across the majority of the site the natural soil profile was complete and that all landscaping by the brewery and railway had been restricted to making-up the land before development. Only at the eastern end was there sufficient evidence of truncation to the Chalk bedrock. The limited extent of the evaluation did not make it possible to determine whether any archaeological features are present on the site, although a number of ditches are known to extend into the site from the south, in the southwestern corner of the site. Therefore, despite the relatively high archaeological potential of the environs of the site, the only evidence of archaeological remains so far identified, would appear to be associated prehistoric/Roman ditches perhaps connected with road, land and boundary delineation. However, this evidence must be adjudged with regard to the percentage area that the evaluation was able to cover.