EDO8233 - Stratton House Car Park, Colliton Street, Dorchester; observations and recording 2015

OASIS: BUARC, Bournemouth University's Archaeological Consultancy, was appointed by Stratton House Developments Ltd to undertake an archaeological watching brief during the ground works phase of their development of a former car park off Colliton Street at the former Stratton House Campus site in Dorchester. The ground works for the footings were mostly shallow by design although deeper extraction did occur, for example, to install services and investigative digging around a buried fuel tank that was discovered on the site. As the deeper excavations were not extensive, disturbance of the earliest deposits and features present on the site was minimal. All of the archaeological deposits and features identified during the project are post medieval and modern in date. 17th century pottery was found in association with and provides a date for the earliest activity, including a probable well, remains of a wall and stone surface and other associated deposits. A second well was also found in a different part of the site and a number of remnants of wall foundations attest to the presence of multiple buildings on the site prior to 1880, as no buildings are shown on historic mapping beyond this date.