EDO4842 - Dorset County Hospital Site, Dorchester (Stage 1); evaluation 1989 (Trench D)

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 D was aligned approximately N-S, 2m wide and 4m long. A small number of probably Roman features and layers were recorded below some 1.35m of late post-medieval and modern deposits. A 0.1m thick patch of hard packed flint rubble in the NW corner of the trench produced no datable material. In the middle of the trench were two post-holes one of which had a post-pipe and produced late Roman pottery from its packing. The other post-hole also contained abraded roman pottery. They measured 0.5m in diameter and were 0.2-0.4m deep and cut through earlier roman layers. A large number (153) of tesserae were also recovered from this trench suggesting the presence of a substantial building in the near vicinity [1].