Monument record MDO18100 - Old Methodist Chapel Roman Building 508

Found during the 1982 excavations at the Old Methodist Chapel, Dorchester. A timber building with chalk floors and hearth built over the remains of Building 477.

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).

No structural remains of this building were exposed. The evidence for this building comprises an extensive chalk surface [398, 39]) found in two places overlying the remains of Building 477. This was sealed by another chalk floor [391] on which was a hearth base of clay and tile, with small postholes to the north and south of it. The later floor was cut by four truncated postholes with a limestone or tile pad in the base, which may be the remains of a later phase of building.

This building contained no closely datable finds, but stratigraphically it was probably constructed after AD120 and probably went out of use by AD200.

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at Greyhound Yard, and the Old Methodist Chapel (1982-1984): Interim and introductory notes to the current excavations (Unpublished document).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