EDO5149 - Bridport Community Hospital, Allington: Trench 3

AC archaeology carried out an evaluation of the site of the Bridport Community Hospital, prior to the construction of the hospital in 1993. Five machine trenches were excavated in the areas not affected by previous disturbance and landscaping. Trench 3 was a 60m long machine-cut trench running N-S up and down the slope along the eastern side of the southern half of the field. The natural Bridport Sands were revealed at a depth of 0.55m, overlain by a clayey sand colluvial layer 0.4m thick, below a 0.15m thick topsoil. Two linear features were found cut into the natural. Ditch 27 was aligned roughly NE-SW and was about one metre wide with a rounded profile 0.4m deep. A fragment of prehistoric pottery, together with one flint and two chert flakes were recovered from the ditch. Ditch 28 was aligned roughly NW-SE, to the south of Ditch 27. It was 1.9m wide and 0.6m deep with a rounded profile, with some suggestion of a recut. It contained some worked flint. These ditches are probably prehistoric in date, and a tentative Neolithic date is suggested by the excavators.