Monument record MDO18344 - Former Hardye's School, Barnes Way, Dorchester; medieval/ post-medieval boundary ditches

Traces of a number of small ditches aligned roughly E-W were found during the evaluation of the site of the former Hardye's School, Barnes Way, Dorchester by AC archaeology in 1996. These are probably remnants of medieval and/or post-medieval field ditches. There is a concentration of ditches along the southern boundary of the site, which coincides with one of the major boundaries in the Fordington open field system.

Traces of a number of small ditches aligned roughly E-W were found during the evaluation of the site of the former Hardye's School, Barnes Way, Dorchester by AC archaeology in 1996. A large number of shallow ill-defined ditches and gullies were present in most of the evaluation trenches, with the majority in the southern part of the field. These ditches were all about 0.5m wide and less than 0.2m deep with rounded profiles. There were a number of pairs of ditches in the southern half of the field. All of these ditches were filled with similar dark brown soil and very few artefacts were recovered, mainly small abraded fragments of medieval and post-medieval pottery (1) (2).

These ditches are probably remnants of medieval and/or post-medieval field ditches. There is a concentration of ditches along the southern boundary of the site, which coincides with one of the major boundaries in the Fordington open field system as shown on Simpson's 1779 map of Fordington (3).

<1> Valentin, J, Dorchester, Former Hardye's School, Barnes Way. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 160 (Article in serial). SDO9426.

<2> Valentin J, 1996, An Archaeological Evaluation of a Proposed Housing Development at the former Hardye’s School, Barnes Way, Dorchester (Unpublished document). SDO9425.

<3> William Simpson, 1779, A survey of the Manor of Fordington (Map). SDO9386.

Record last edited

Nov 3 2006 4:44AM