Monument record MDO18099 - Old Methodist Chapel Roman Building 477

Found during the 1982 excavations at the Old Methodist Chapel, Dorchester. A timber building, probably fronting on to the south side of Street 510, towards the west end of the northern frontage of the Greyhound Yard insula. It comprised three beam slots, probably forming a rectangular room with a corridor along the eastern side. There was a sequence of chalk floors within and to the east of this building.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1982 after the demolition of the South Street Methodist Chapel on the corner of South Street and Durngate Street, Dorchester. (1) The results of the excavation were published together with the results of the adjacent Greyhound Yard excavations. (2) The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the published report (2).

Building 477 was the primary feature in this part of the site, overlying the pre-urban soil. The structural evidence for this building comprised three parallel square-cut slots. The two westerly slots [394, 473] were about 0.3m wide and 0.5-0.6m deep. The eastern slot [476] was shallower, about 0.25m deep. A chalk surface [474] was found between the two easternmost slots and another chalk surface immediately east of the building [400]. The pottery dating evidence from these contexts suggests a construction date pre-AD75, comparable to the date of construction of the chalk surfaces to the west of Building 477. Pottery recovered from within and east of this building is dated up to about AD100 and includes some early Roman imported wares.

The eastern side of Building 477 appears to have been rebuilt in about AD100 with new more substantial chalk surfaces [386, 500] sealing the earlier floors. This building appears to have gone out of use about AD120.

Wessex Archaeology, 1982, Old Methodist Chapel excavation archive (Excavation archive). SDO9442.

Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Dorchester, Durnovaria: Excavations in the town centre at Greyhound Yard, and the Old Methodist Chapel (1982-1984): Interim and introductory notes to the current excavations (Unpublished document). SDO9435.

<1> Woodward, P J, 1982, Excavations at the South Street Methodist Chapel, Dorchester, 187-188 (Article in serial). SDO9436.

<2> Woodward, P J , Davies, S M , and Graham, A H, 1993, Excavations at the Old Methodist Chapel and Greyhound Yard, Dorchester, 1981-1984, 38 (Monograph). SDO9411.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:26PM