EDO5468 - The Square, Wimborne Minster; observations and recording 2009

East Dorset Antiquarian Society volunteers observed and participated in the digging of six test pits in advance of an enhancement scheme by East Dorset District Council. The upper levels of the pits were excavated by mechanical mini-digger and completed by hand. All spoil was seived for finds. Each pit was approximately 1.2m square and 0.6m deep. Made ground relating to the modern road surface extended from the surface to a depth of 0.4 to 0.45m across the site. Below this were a number of intact and distrubed archaeological deposits. The Square had been the site of St Peter's Chapel during the medieval period. It was associated with a churchyard of 1 acres extent which was enclosed by a fence or wall by 1414. By 1544, following the dissolution, a church house had replaced the church, decayed by 1588. In 1589 this building was converted into a town hall. In 1638 an outbreak of plague led to 400 towns people being buried in St Peter's churchyard. By the mid 19th century only the east wall of the church house remained stabding. This was pulled down in the 1860s in order to open up the Square as it is today. This process probably caused much of the disturbance to archaeological deposits. Test Pit 1, in the NW corner of the Square, contained a 19th century iron gas pipe in its lowest fill as well as fragments of animal bone. Test Pit 2, in the SE corer of the Saquare, contained a black, ashy, charcoal rich sandy layer at its base, which contained abundant lumps of ironworking slag and a single sherd of 13th-15th century pottery. The presence of hammer-scale suggests that this deposit was associated with a late medieval or early post-medieval iron working site at the north end of High Street. Test Pit 3, in the middle of the Square on the eastern side, contained the footings of a N-S aligned wall. This wall contained two tesserae in a ssociation with it. One was red ceramic, the other was white limestone and both measure between 20mm and 28mm across, within the upper limits of size range for Roman tesserae. The foundations have been interpreted as either the eastern wall of St Peter's Chancel, or a boundary wall associated with it. The tesserae are comparable to those from a pavement found beneath the nave of Wimborne Minster church and may indicate either the presence of a roman building nearby or that St Peter's chapel had a Saxon origin. Test Pit 4, in the middle of the square on the western side, contained a compacted rubble spread at its base, possibilty associated with the late 19th century clearance of the Square. Test Pit 5, in the NE corner of the Square, contained a possible disturbed grave cut and disarticulated human bone. Test Pit 6, in the SW corner of the Square, contained disarticulated human bone scattered within its lowest layer. 19 pieces of worked flint, including a broken mesolithic/neolithic blade (the remainder dating from the Bronze Age) were recovered from test pits 2, 3, 4 and 6. Only one medieval pottery sherd was recovered from test pit 2, although 15 sherds of post-medieval pottery were recovered from test pits 4 and 6. A total of 270 fragments of human bone weighing 916g were recovered from test pits 2, 4, 5 and 6.