EDO5771 - 19 St Martin's Lane, Wareham; observations and recording 2014

Archaeological observations and recording were carried out during groundworks for a detached house and garage as a requirement of a condition on planning permission (Purbeck District Council application reference 6/2013/0267). The groundworks comprised mechanical excavation of strip footings trenches and pits to a depth of approximately 1.5m below ground level, and the deep mechanical bulk excavation (into natural outwash gravels) of a new basement area measuring approximately 11m by 11m. A new service trench was excavated along the street frontage and a stepped soil-percolation test pit dug at the eastern end of the site. The groundworks for the new garage were not observed. Natural deposits were encountered at a depth of around 1.4m below ground level at the street frontage and around 1.5m in a test pit near the east end of the site. These deposits comprised a loose light orange-brown sandy clay loam with small gravel, giving way to a free-draining pale yellow-brown fluvial sand and fine gravels. A thick late medieval or post-medieval topsoil overlay a 0.3-0.4m thick reworked medieval soil containing pottery dating from the 10th/11th to at least the late 13th century. Of uncertain relationship with this soil, but probably originally cutting at least part of its thickness, were the remains of three small truncated 11th-12th century pits. All three appear to be broadly domestic in character, producing pottery and animal bone, as well as small quantities of smithing slag and hammer scale in two of them. Late medieval finds were absent and only small quantities of pre 18th-19th century post-medieval material were found from the topsoil. The findings from 19 St Martins Lane support a widely held view that Wareham saw sporadic urban expansion from its Late Saxon core throughout the 11th-13th centuries, before suffering significant economic stagnation and urban contraction after the 13th century.