EDO5618 - Anaerobic digester, Rainbarrow Farm, Winterborne Monkton; evaluation 2010

Evaluation in advance of proposed works involving the construction of an anaerobic digestion and power generation plant, access road and service corridor to connect the plant to an existing engine house on the eastern side of the Dorchester by-pass. The evaluation consisted of the excavation of 20 evaluation trenches (ten 30m by 2m and ten 10m by 2m), equal to a 2% sample of the development area. Before trenching, proposed locations were scanned using a cable trace device. They were then excavated using a tracked 360º excavator equipped with a 2m wide toothless bucket. The survey was carried out with a Leica Viva series GNSS unit using the OS National GPS Network through an RTK network with a 3D accuracy of 30mm or below. A limited number of features were recorded across the site, nearly all of these were undated and most are likely to be natural features. A possible ditch terminus is noted within trench 2. A ditch in Trench 19 apparently represents the only archaeological feature of the site. It is a U-shaped ditch aligned north-south and contained two fills, including fired clay in one. It is likely the feature represents a prehistoric boundary ditch. A lot of redeposited chalk packing was found within trench 2. it has been hypothesised that this was removed from the ground in relation to the transmitting station or radio mast. There is very limited evidence for archaeological remains surviving on the site, only a single feature being of probable archaeological importance.