Monument record MDO18268 - Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester; Early Roman Structure 2

Structure 2 was a stone-footed building found in the SE corner of Trench 6, during the 1990 excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester. Only the NW corner of this building was exposed and it had been disturbed by later buildings and wall robbing. It had mortared flint nodule footings with traces of a mortared limestone wall on top. Within the building were two phases of tessellated floor. The pottery found within the floor layers gives a terminus post quem date in the 2nd century AD.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1990 in the proposed Wessex Court retail development area between Charles Street, Acland Road, and South Walks, Dorchester (1) (2) (3). The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the report and archive (1) (3).

Only a very small part of Structure 2 was exposed in the excavated area and it had been badly disturbed by later construction and robbing. The NW angle of a building was exposed in the SE corner of Trench 6. It comprised a 0.9m wide, 0.86m deep mortared flint nodule footing, on which small parts of the overlying stone wall, comprising mortared limestone blocks, survived.

Within this building, a number of floor layers survived, including two separate phases of tessellated paving. The base of the floor consisted of a layer of flint nodules covered in a mortar screed, both containing 1st/2nd century AD pottery. The earlier mosaic floor only survived as two lines of small tesserae agains the walls, the remainder having been subsequently disturbed. Above this floor was a thin mortar layer in which was set larger limestone tesserae. Not all the tesserae were found in situ: a number were found stacked against the north wall of the structure.

The substantial nature of the stone footings and the mosaic floors suggest that this was part of a substantial town house. Unfortunately, too little of this structure was exposed to be able to determine the size and layout of this building. It is unclear what the size and layout of this building was, nor of its dating. The pottery in the flooring gives a terminus post quem of the 2nd century AD. It is similarly unclear what the relationship with Structure 3 was. It is possible that Structures 2 and 3 were part of the same building.

<1> Adam, N J, and Butterworth, C A, 1993, Excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester, Dorset, 1990. Volume 1: Text & Appendix I (Unpublished document). SDO191.

<2> Adam, N J, 1990, 'Excavations at Charles Street (Wessex Court), Dorchester, Interim Note on Stage 3, October-December 1990' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 115-7 (Article in serial). SDO9415.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 1989-1990, Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO9878.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1431041 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:28PM