EDO4498 - Poundbury Railway Cutting, Dorchester; casual observation 1855

In 1855, in making the cutting leading to the railway tunnel on the south eastern side of Poundbury camp, a section through the valla of the hillfort was observed. A stone sarcophagus and iron sword were also recovered. It was observed that outside the almost levelled second vallum there were no less than four small ditches with probably three valla between them [1]. The sarcophagus, of Ham Hill stone is in the DCM. It's sides were 9ins thick and and measured 7ft 2ins x 2ft 9ins X 1ft 3 ins high. It had a hole bored in the base and no lid. The iron sword had a tang of 3.5ins, a blade of 18ins length and 1.75ins width, tapering from sloping shoulders. A reddish-grey jar with deep tooled lattice was also given to the DCM but is now untraced, but was almost certainly earlier than 3rd century AD [2].