EDO7898 - 17-23 New Street, Weymouth; evaluation 2022

An archaeological evaluation was carried out by Oakford Archaeology between June and July 2022 on land at Nos. 17-23 New Street, Weymouth. The work comprised the machine-excavation of two trenches totalling 11.2m in length, with each trench between 1-1.6m wide. These provided a spatial sample of the site. Excavations along the southern edge of the site uncovered remnants of an extensive late medieval or post-medieval garden soil. This was truncated at the western end of Trench 1 by a heavily robbed 17th century brick building foundation. Nothing is known of the layout of the building or indeed what activities were taking place within the structure. The limited finds assemblage recovered from the backfill of the robber trench suggests a late 18th or early 19th century date for the demolition of the building, at a time when the still partly unoccupied plots along New Street were being extensively built up. At the eastern end of the trench a substantial stone lined well was identified, while five features, generally with steep sides and flat base, were cut through the garden soil along the northern edge of Trench 1. Evidence from Trench 2 exposed successive deposits of sand interspersed with thin soils pre-dating the reclamation of the foreshore in the medieval period. These were sealed underneath an extensive late medieval or post-medieval garden soil. The remains of a stone lined well were identified in the centre of the trench, and the deliberate backfilling was contemporary with the backfilling in the late 18th or early 19th century of a large E-W aligned robber trench along the northern end of Trench 2. Finds included medieval ridgetile, post-medieval pottery including local coarseware fabrics and tin-glazed pottery from London or Bristol, as well 16th-17th century Portuguese coarseware and 17th century Saintonge ware pottery from France