EDO569 - Child's Garage, Long Street, Sherborne; evaluation 1996 Trench 2

Wessex Archaeology conducted an archaeological evaluation in advance of re-development for 17 retirement properties (The Cloisters) at the former Child’s Garage, Long Street in 1996. Five trenches were excavated, three of which, Trenches 1-3, contained a great depth of subsoil (0.7m) below modern topsoil. Trench 4 contained redeposited subsoil above the topsoil and in situ subsoil. This thickness of subsoil is thought to relate to intensive cultivation, possibly as the kitchen garden of The Retreat (later Harper House) fronting on to Hound Street. The redeposited subsoil in Trench 4 may have derived from Trench 5 which had been cleared down to clay in the construction of a hard standing area. Two stone wall footings were recorded in Trench 5, one of which continued the alignment of an extant building and corresponds to a boundary seen on an OS map dated to 1903. the other wall may relate to another building seen on the same map. The only medieval features were severely truncated and recorded in Trenches 1 and 2. they were cut into the underlying clay. Three of these features were recorded in Trench 1, one of which contained medieval finds; both features in trench two contained medieval artefacts. All of these features are likely to relate to activities in the medieval town of Sherborne, although little can be said about their character or function. Trench 2 measured 5m x 2.1m and was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.04m. It was located near the NW corner of the site and aligned approximately NNW-SSE, parallel and adjacent to the western boundary of the plot.