EDO4841 - Dorset County Hospital Site, Dorchester (Stage 1); evaluation 1989 (Trench C)

Wessex Archaeology conducted an archaeological evaluation on stage 1 (southern part) of the County Hospital Site during December 1989 in advance of planning permission being granted for redevelopment. Five small trenches were excavated, four (A-D) by hand, and one by machine (E). The results suggested that most of the area contains substantial Roman deposits under a late post-Medieval and modern overburden up to 1.5m thick. The roman remains include evidence for timber and stone buildings, at least some with mosaic or tessellated pavements, internal features like ovens, associated pits, wells, ditches and gullies. Features relating to the Roman defences include parts of the actual chalk ramparts and retaining wall. Trench C was aligned approximately N-S, 2m wide and 4m long. A 0.2m thick Roman rubble layer lay beneath the 19th century garden soils in the NE part of the trench, producing 9 sherds of late Roman pottery. This lay above a similar layer containing 2nd-4th century material, which in turn covered a deposit of artefact free reddish-brown silty clay, which was up to 1m thick. In the SW corner of the trench a similar sequence of deposits was encountered. The depths of the layers below the late Roman rubble was recorded by auger and left unexcavated but the deposits seem to extend to 2.5m below ground level and it is possible that pre-urban as well as Roman deposits are preserved here [1].