EDO4211 - The Grove, Dorchester, Trench 2

Trench 2 was a 30m by 4m wide trench aligned E-W, on the west side of The Grove, just to the south of the former Marabout Castle pub. It was excavated to investigate the outer parts of the Roman town defences. It was excavated under the auspices of the Dorchester Excavation Committee in 1972 and directed by Ken Smith. The excavation revealed two ditches of north-south direction dug into the natural chalk bedrock. The larger, outer ditch, lay about 27m from the west edge of The Grove, and appeared to have three phases. The first was a V-shaped ditch, largely destroyed by later activity, succeeded by a wider ditch, which produced 3rd-4th century Roman pottery. The final phase of the ditch produced 14th-15th century pottery. The middle ditch, to the east, was slightly smaller than the outer ditch and appeared to have two phases. The first phase produced 2nd-3rd century Roman pottery, the later phase had no dating evidence. The upper part of the ditch was heavily disturbed by 19th century activity, which affected most of the area of the trench.