EDO4176 - Dorchester Police Headquarters; Evaluation Trench 8

Three trenches were excavated by AC archaeology in November 2000 in advance of the redevelopment of the Dorchester Police Headquartes site. The site lies immediately outside the southern gates of the Roman town of Durnovaria, alongside the route of the Roman southern approach road into the town and close to where a number of Roman burials were uncovered during construction work in the 1950s. The three trenches (7-9) were excavated in the northern part of the site in order to determine the potential survival of archaeological deposits. Trench 8 measured 3m x 1.2m and was situated close to Weymouth Avenue towards the NW corner of the site. At the east end of the trench, modern disturbance lay directly on top of natural chalk at a depth of 0.9m. In the NE corner of the trench, a heavily truncated ditch was partly exposed on the same alignment as the Roman roadside ditch in Trench 7. No finds were recovered from the fill.