EDO4366 - Dorchester Hospital Site E

A 25m long trench was cut through the gardens of Almshouses nos. 12-15 West Walks, in order to examine as much as possible of the W rampart of the Roman town defences and the area immediately behind it. This work was carried out under the auspices of the Dorchester Excavation Committee and was directed by David Viner. The excavation revealed the tail of the rampart continuing for 3.7m into the trench. The rampart comprised intermixed layers of turf and decayed chalk, with a 0.3-0.5m chalk capping. It was not possible to determine whether this was the tail of the primary or secondary rampart. However, at the most westerly point of the trench, a chalk-lined cut through the pre-urban turf line, sealed by the rampart, may have been a marking out trench, perhaps at the rear of the primary rampart. This would suggest that most of the rampart exposed was part of the secondary rampart. A sequence of occupation levels was exposed immediately to the rear of the rampart. This included a substantial wall parallel to and 4.5m behind the rampart with a post-built verandah and a sequence of three cobbled surfaces perhaps part of a roadway running along the back of the rampart. The final phase of Roman activity comprised an extension to the cobbled area, with a timber fence and a ditch along its edge. Further to the east were the remains of a building with mortared flint sleeper walls and an internal cobbled surface. There was no evidence for domestic occupation in association with this building and its precise function is not known. A post-medieval cobbled path was set into the back of the rampart.