Monument record MDO18358 - South Walks Tunnel Sewer; Roman town defences

Part of the Roman town defences was exposed during sewage works on South Walks Road, recorded by Wessex Archaeology in 1990, including part of the fill of the inner defensive ditch, the northern tail of the rampart and an early possible flint wall foundation.

Part of the Roman town defences was exposed during sewage works on South Walks Road, recorded by Wessex Archaeology in 1990, including part of the fill of the inner and middle defensive ditches, the northern tail of the rampart and an early possible flint wall foundation.

The inner ditch fill was exposed in a tunnel running between Manhole 2 (at the junction between South Walks and Charles Street) and the sewer trench in Charles Street, where it comprised mixed brown silt loam with fine fragments of chalk, sand, and carbonised grain, possibly the remains of dumped urban refuse, together with some large blocks of roughly dressed limestone. Further elements of the fill the inner ditch were observed in Manholes 3, and 4. Manhole 3 lay at the junction of South Walks and Acland Road and the ditch fill was exposed in the northern face down to a depth of 1.8m below the surface, suggesting that most of the ditch lay to the north. In Manhole 4 (on South Walks east of Acland Road) the fill of the inner ditch was exposed to a depth of 1.1m below the surface in the northern part. In Borehole 1 (just east of the junction between South Walks and South Street), 1m of clay was found beneath 2.8m of made ground, and this has been interpreted as part of the fill of the inner ditch (1).

The fill of the middle ditch was only encountered in one place, in Borehole 4 on the south side of South Walks at the entrance to Beech Court, where 3.4m of clay fill was found above the natural chalk, sealed beneath 1.4m of topsoil (1).

Part of the northern (inner) edge of the rampart was exposed. This comprised redeposited chalk rubble surviving up to 1m high, overlying the natural chalk. Immediately to the north of the rampart, and partially sealed by it, was a substantial 3.5m wide flint rubble feature, running E-W. This comprised a 0.3m deep cut into the natural chalk containing a footing of two courses of flint rubble in a pale brown silt matrix. This feature is similar to a feature discovered on the Lee Motors site on the corner of Bowling Alley Walk and Trinity Street in 1955. This earlier exposure was interpreted as a road, but it may be the remains of an early unfinished town wall (1).

Wessex Archaeology, 1990, South Walks Tunnel Sewer, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10025.

Davies S M and Farwell D E, 1990, South Walks Tunnel Sewer, Dorchester, Dorset: A Report on the Archaeological Watching-brief (Unpublished document). SDO182.

<1> Davies, S M and Farwell, D E, 1990, South Walks Tunnel Sewer, Dorchester: Archaeological Watching-Brief. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 51-6 (Article in serial). SDO9573.

Record last edited

Jan 24 2025 11:19AM