EDO4462 - Great Western Hotel Garden, Great Western Road, Dorchester; observations and recording 1896

The Borough Surveyor A J Hunt recorded an archaeological section across the Roman Town ditches during the excavation of a deep drain made for the borough garden from Bowling Alley Walk in the north to the Great Western Road in the south [1][2]. The trench cut through two chalk ridges suggesting that there may have been three parallel 'v' profiled ditches outside the ramparts on the south side of the roman town. However, it is possible that the outermost or southern of these ditches may be a medieval holloway beneath the Great Western Road [3]. The section was nearly square and indicates a total width of 155ft for the ditches and a deptht of about 12 ft [1].