EDO4381 - The Grove/ Miller's Close, Dorchester; observations and recording 1963

An inhumation burial was destroyed in building excavations for bungalows between The Grove and Miller's Close late in 1963, and apparently 14 more since, all within an area of some 15 x 15 yards, centering on SY 68829104, and all apparently in extended posture. Little of the first burial remained when examined by Miss M. Samuel but it had apparently been oriented E-W, with no grave goods noticed although some watch had been kept. Some 2ft of topsoil had been stripped from the site, and the burials, which were not all similarly aligned, were found in chalk some 4 or 5 feet deeper, with soil and dark rubble above. Two extended skeletons, also variously oriented, were found nearby in 1903 in building the new Compasses Inn (68869106), accompanied by coarse ware vessels, one (DCM 1907.3.8) a bead rim pedestalled jar of Brailsford's Durotrigian type 2, the other (not traced), evidently a small jar or pipkin.