Monument record MDO18251 - Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester; Later Roman structure 1609

The robbed remains of a later Roman stone building was found in Trench 3, during the 1989 excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester. Part of two rooms running N-S, with a corridor along the eastern side were exposed. The walls had been robbed and only a small part of the limestone wall survived above the mortared flint footings. The southern room was floored with chalk and contained a pottery vessel buried in the floor in the northeast corner, sealed by a limestone slab. An infant burial was placed on top of the slab. The northern room was also floored in chalk and contained a stone ‘keyhole’ oven and a stone-lined tank. Another pottery vessel was buried in the southeast corner of the room. The corridor was also floored in chalk, but, unlike the other two rooms, it had not been terraced into the hillside. Three pottery vessels were found set into the floor of the corridor. To the east was a courtyard which had a chalk path leading to an entrance between two stub walls on the eastern side of the corridor. Later the courtyard was surfaced with crushed limestone in a mortar bed. The finds suggest a 3rd-4th century date for this building. Its precise function is unclear but it is clear that it formed part of a larger building, probably ranged around the courtyard.

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).

This building was found in the western half of Trench 3. Part of two rooms arranged north-south with a corridor running along the eastern side was exposed. The northern room was 5m wide and over 2.5m long and the southern room was 5m wide and over 3m long. The corridor was 2m wide and had two stub walls projecting from its eastern face, probably marking the remains of an entrance. The walls had been robbed and only one or two courses of mortared flint footings, 0.55m wide, remained, except where the footings cut early Roman pit [308] and seven courses survived. A small length of the internal wall between the two rooms survived. This was a 0.8m length of mortared limestone block wall with a rubble core [166], 0.5m wide and surviving five courses (0.8m) high. Wall plaster remained in situ on the southern face and a moulded angle survived at the base where it joined the floor.

The southern room had a sequence of rammed chalk floors and occupation deposits up to 0.3m thick, laid directly on top of the natural chalk, which had probably been terraced for the construction of this building. The rammed chalk surfaces were thin, discontinuous and overlapping, indicating much use and repair. In the northeast corner of the room, a complete pottery vessel had been set into the floor with its top level with the floor surface. It was empty and its mouth was sealed by a limestone slab. An infant burial [249] had been placed on top of this slab and sealed by an occupation layer.

The northern room, contained to stone-built features: in the southwestern corner of the room was an oven [125] and a stone-lined tank [195] against the east wall. The oven was of keyhole pattern with a stokehole to the east. It was constructed from limestone blocks backed by coarse mortar, flint and limestone rubble. It was 1.5m long and 0.7m wide. The firing floor was a shallow bowl-shaped depression filled with lenses of ash, soil and crushed chalk. Tank [195] was 1m square and lined and floored with limestone slabs. It lay flush with the floor of the room. It was filled with brown soil and chalk rubble. Neither the oven or the tank contained any evidence of their original purpose. In the southeast corner of the room was a complete pottery vessel set into the floor. The floors of this room comprised a sequence of rammed chalk floors and occupation layers up to 0.6m thick.

The corridor was floored by a chalk floor which sealed and early Roman soil layer, indicating that, unlike the other two rooms of this building, the corridor had not been terraced into the hill slope. The primary chalk floor was sealed by an occupation layer [180] containing mixed 2nd-4th century pottery. Three pottery vessels were set into this deposit, which was sealed by a later chalk floor [170].

To the east of the corridor was an open courtyard. The primary surface may have been earthen and laid directly above an earlier Roman level. It was covered by dumps of soil and building rubble containing pottery dating to the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Above this was a chalk path leading eastwards from the corridor between the two stub walls and then turning southwards. The yard was then surfaced by a layer of fine crushed limestone on a mortar bed.

The exposed parts of Structure 1609 probably form part of a larger building, which probably extended round the southern and eastern sides of the courtyard, fronting on to the Roman street which ran approximately on the line of modern Acland Road. The exposed part of the building would appear to be ancillary to the main part of the house and may have been part of a shop.

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