Monument record MDO18239 - Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester; Early Roman structure 1603

The remains of a probable early Roman rectangular timber building were found in Trench 3 during the 1989 excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester. Only part of one wall of the structure was found (in the form of a beam slot), probably the remains of an internal wall, with a parallel line of three postholes to the south.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1989 in the proposed Wessex Court retail development area between Charles Street, Acland Road, and South Walks, Dorchester (1) (2) (3) (4). The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the report and archive (1) (4).

The fragmentary remains of a probable rectangular timber building were found in the eastern half of Trench 3. It comprised a single gully [311], 0.3m wide, which survived 0.06m deep which was traced for seven metres E-W, but both ends had been truncated by later activity. This may be the remains of a beam slot. About one metre to the south, was a parallel line of three postholes [309, 338, 340] with traces of flint and limestone packing.

There were no finds directly associated with this structure but there was a large quantity of Early Roman material including pottery, wall plaster, ceramic building material (including three antefixes), a Durotrigian coin, as well as other material in the layer beneath structure 1603, which is dated to the second half of the 1st century AD.

Structure 1603 is likely to be later 1st century or early 2nd century in date, but its form and function are not clear from present evidence.

National Monuments Record, NMR Monument Record, SY 69 SE 386 (Index). SDO9937.

<1> Davies, S M and Farwell, D, 1989, Excavations at Charles Street (Wessex Court), Dorchester: Interim report on Stage 1, 25th May-3rd July and Stage 2, 25th July-12th September 1989 (Unpublished document). SDO9408.

<2> Adam, N J, Butterworth, C A, Davies, S M, and Farwell, D E, 1992, Excavations at Wessex Court , Charles Street, Dorchester, Dorset, 1989 (Unpublished document). SDO9409.

<3> Davies, S M and Farwell, D E, 1989, 'Charles Street, Dorchester, Wessex Court Development', Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9414.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 1989-1990, Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO9878.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:28PM