Monument record MDO18610 - Colliton Park, Dorchester; Roman Building II

Fragmentary remains of two rectangular rooms of a building (Building II) were exposed in the NW part of Colliton Park during excavations in 1937 and 1938. This building was very poorly preserved with no surviving floor surfaces or evidence for its function. It may have been set within a larger courtyard area (together with Building VII). This building was probably late 3rd-4th century date but no dating evidence was recovered.

Fragmentary remains of two rooms of a building were exposed in the NW part of Colliton Park during excavations in 1937 and 1938. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the excavations were never completed or written up. The following account is based on the interim report (1) and the Royal Commission Inventory entry (2).

Building II was very poorly preserved with only the fragmentary bottom course of the footings surviving, which defined parts of two rectangular rooms. No floor surfaces survived (1). No evidence for the function of this building survived, nor of its original extent. A small oven may have been found several metres to the SE (2). Given the character of the surrounding buildings, it is likely that Building II is industrial rather than domestic in character.

This building may have been set within a larger courtyard area (defined as Building VII to the west). Building II was separated from Building I to the north by a ditch and it lay just NE of another small two-roomed building (Building 250) excavated in 1984 by Wessex Archaeology (3). No dating evidence for the date of use of Building II was found, but it is likely to be contemporary with the courtyard and Building VII, for which a late 3rd-4th century date can be proposed.

Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 01-SEP-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 453300 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1937-1938, Colliton Park, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10066.

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1939, Journal of Roman Studies, 219 (Serial). SDO20471.

Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 10-OCT-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<1> Drew, C D, and Collingwood Selby, K C, 1938, 'The Excavations at Colliton Park, Dorchester: Second Interim report; Excavations carried out in the season of 1938' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 53 (Article in serial). SDO9765.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 558 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘Monuments (182–187), in Colliton Park, now occupied by the County Council offices, were excavated in 1937–9 by C. D. Drew and K. C. C. Selby. Interim reports appeared in Dorset Procs. LIX (1937), 1–14, and LX (1938), 51–65. Where the following accounts differ from these reports they are based on unpublished finds and site notebooks in D.C.M., and on a re-examination of the visible remains including the re-exposure in 1959 of the floors of rooms 14 and 18 of Monument (182). For the street and water conduit also excavated by Drew and Selby, see Monuments (180) and (227b). (183) BUILDING, much damaged, 120 ft. S. of the S. range of (182) (68979091; Buildings II and VII in interim report, Drew and Selby, op. cit. on p. 553 (1938); Figs. pp. 554, 559).

Fragmentary wall footings enclosed two rectangular rooms but no floors survived; a small oven was said to have been found by contractors some yards to the S.E. An E. to W. ditch (the 'West Ditch') 130 ft. long and 5 ft. wide, with some post-holes on the N. side, apparently bounded the property to the N. (182) and cut into the rear chalk capping of the town rampart; its filling throughout included New Forest pottery, consistent with its attribution to the 4th-century house (182). Walls to the W. and S., 'Building VII', probably with an isolated length to the E., evidently formed a rectangular enclosure about 192 ft. by at least 110 ft., which had been contracted on the N. when the 'West Ditch' was dug. Its alignment conforms quite well with that of the street (180) to the E. The W. wall footings were covered by the extreme tail of the Roman town rampart, in the second phase proposed in this volume, after c. A.D. 300 (see p. 543); the fresh state of the footings suggested no great interval of time between the constructions.

Towards the S.W. angle of the enclosure was a forge consisting of a low kerbed platform of limestone slabs, shield-shaped in plan and 4 ft. long E. to W. by some 3 ft. wide at most. Short extensions of the kerb splayed out at the narrow E. end, and upright settings of slabs and of animal shin-bones, parallel with the end splay and apparently without functional purpose, flanked both sides. The W. end of the platform was heavily burnt, and ashes spread over the whole area, sealing the tail of the town rampart and including many short iron rods, in some cases drawn out to form small spear-heads. A similar platform, unburnt and 4 ft. to the N.E. but not on the plan, is dated by New Forest ware below it to the 4th century.’

<3> Smith, R J C, 1993, Excavations at County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, 1988 in the North-West Quarter of Durnovaria, 91 (Monograph). SDO9660.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:30PM