Monument record MDO18345 - Wollaston Field, Dorchester; Roman road

The remains of a Roman road aligned roughly NE-SW was exposed in Wollaston Field during excavations by R A H Farrar in 1947-1952 and subsequently further parts were exposed during excavations by the Central Excavation Unit in 1978. The road was composed of layers of flint gravels and was flanked by drainage ditches to the south. A street aligned north-east to south-west was discovered in the Charles Street car park in 1990 and is probably part of this street. These excavations showed the road to have been repaired many times, indicating that it was in use throughout the Roman period, and that it was the main road linking the east and south gates.

The remains of a Roman road aligned roughly NE-SW was exposed in Wollaston Field during excavations by R A H Farrar in 1947-1952 (1) (2) (3) and subsequently further parts were exposed during excavations by the Central Excavation Unit in 1978 (4).

Farrar exposed the road in four narrow trenches across the road, with a fifth trench to the northeast revealing that the road had been destroyed by 18th century buildings along the Icen Way frontage. Farrar describes the road as “ 16 feet [4.87m] wide, cambered, and solidly constructed of graded ballast about one foot thick [0.3m] – a surfacing of cemented flints and gravel on a foundation of heavy flints in sandy clay resting on the natural chalk” (Farrar 1950, 65). There were traces of remetalling of “finer ochreous gravel” in the eastern exposed part of the road and the road may have been widened by a further remetalling on the south side. In the southwesternmost trench, Farrar found the road consisted of four distinct layers of “grouted flint metalling” above the road base of flints in sandy soil (Farrar 1952, 98). Traces of a flanking gully were found to the south of the road.

The 1977 excavations re-examined the areas excavated by Farrar and exposed a length of over 10m of this road. The road was shown to be 2.5m wide and 0.4m thick, slightly cambered with a sharp fall off at the edges into the flanking drainage ditches. The road was apparently built directly on top of the natural chalk and was composed of thin cemented layers of small rounded pale yellow to dark brown flint gravel. There was little evidence for wear or patching (Wilson 2002, 3). Along the southern edge of the street was a square-cut drain originally 1.2m wide and 0.7m deep, which was subsequently narrowed to 0.6m wide when a building was built along the south frontage of the road (4).

No dating evidence for the period of construction of this road has been found. Farrar found a worn coin of Tetricus I (AD270-273) in a hole in the original surface and the flanking ditches contained a fairly high proportion of Samian pottery and no recognisable later Roman pottery (2), suggests the road had a long life, perhaps from the 1st century and into the later 3rd century at least.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 1430652 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Farrar, R A H, 1947-1952, Wollaston Field (Excavation archive). SDO9990.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, p552 Dorchester no. 175 (Monograph). SDO150.

Central Excavation Unit, 1977-79, Wollaston Field (Excavation archive). SDO9992.

<1> Farrar, R A H, 1948, Dorchester, Wollaston House. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9760.

<2> Farrar, R A H, 1949, Dorchester, Wollaston House, Durngate Street. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9755.

<3> Farrar, R A H, 1952, Excavation at Wollaston House, Dorchester. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9749.

<4> Wilson, P R, 2002, Roman Bath house Excavations at Wollaston House, Dorchester, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO9412.

Record last edited

Oct 16 2024 10:57AM