Monument record MDO18356 - Poundbury Development Offsite Planting, Dorchester; Boundary ditches

Two ditches were found in the evaluation trench adjacent to the Dorchester By-pass and north of Maiden Castle Road excavated by Wessex Archaeology as part of a programme of off-site planting for the Poundbury development in 1991. A small quantity of finds including one Roman pot sherd and a fragment of iron was recovered. These ditches are probably the eroded remains of Iron Age/ Roman field boundaries.

Two ditches were found in the evaluation trench adjacent to the Dorchester By-pass and north of Maiden Castle Road excavated by Wessex Archaeology as part of a programme of off-site planting for the Poundbury development in 1991 (1) (2). This trench was adjacent to Trench 4 excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 1998 during the evaluation of an area proposed for community woodland by Wessex Archaeology in 1998, where four similar parallel ditches were found, two of which are continuations of the boundary ditches found in 1991 (3).

The northernmost ditch [017] was 1.4m wide and 0.2m deep and had possibly been recut. It appears to be part of the same ditch as Ditch [408] found during the 1998 fieldwork. Three worked flints, one oyster shell and a fragment of iron were recovered from this ditch.

The southernmost ditch [019] was 0.9m wide and 0.1m deep and its continuation was not traced in the 1998 trench. It produced two pieces of worked flint and a sherd of Roman pottery.

These ditches are probably field boundaries of Late Iron Age / Roman date.

<1> Davies, S M, 1991, Poundbury Development, Dorchester (Offsite Planting), Summary Report on Archaeological Assessment (Unpublished document). SDO9909.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, 1991, Poundbury Development Offsite Planting, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10021.

<3> Ritchie K, 1998, Poundbury Community Woodland, Dorchester, Dorset: Archaeological Evaluation (Unpublished document). SDO9554.

Record last edited

Nov 24 2006 9:13AM