EDO5382 - Castle Hill House, Bimport, Shaftesbury; observations and recording 2001

An archaeological watching brief maintained during groundworks associated with the refurbishment of facilities at Castle Hill House, carried out by ASI Heritage Consultants on behalf of the Shaftesbury Community Health Association. The work was subsequent to observations maintained during residential redevelopment of the western part of the sitein 1999. The present works involved construction of new facilities within the footprint of the former clinic. Foundation excavations revealed approximately 1000mm of recent and extensively disturbed 'made ground' consisting of interleaving dumps of cement-rich building debris , redeposited topsoil over in-situ concrete foundations and ceramic drains, and re-deposited natural Greensand over homogeneous pale brown sandy clay with common angular sandstone inclusions. Unstratified fragments of medieval and post-medieval pottery and modern materials were recovered (and subsequently discarded). No in-situ stratified material was recovered. The author concludes that the absence of subsoils across most of the site, their replacement by made ground, and the presence of concrete foundations at depths of almost 2000mm below ground level indicates that the site has been heavily disturbed, probably by construction of Castle Hill House and development of gardens in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and by construction of the clinic building in the 1960s.