Monument record MDO18627 - County Hall, Roman Street 575

A N-S Roman street was found during the County Hall excavations conducted by Wessex Archaeology iin 1988. This was a continuation northwards of the road excavated in Colliton Park in 1937-8. This road appears to have been initially constructed in the 1st century AD. This metalled road had a gutter along the west side. THere is some suggestion that the road was abandoned for a period in the 3rd century, when a layer of silt developed on top of the surface. The road was re-metalled in the late 3rd century, but to a lesser width. No buildings were found associated with the road in its earlier phase.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1988, prior to the construction of the New Computer Wing and car parking facilities at County Hall, Dorchester (1) (2). The numbers in square brackets below refer to the context and feature numbers used in the published report (1).

The initial street [575] was insubstantial in nature and had been severely truncated by later features and erosion. It survived only where it had subsided into the fill of ditch [48] close to the southern edge of the site. No foundation layer had been laid for the road surface, which consisted of compacted flint gravels only 0.04m thick composed of rounded flints less than 0.1m in diameter. The extent and alignment of the street had to be inferred from ruts in the surface, which continued to the north in the natural chalk. These ruts suggested that the street was aligned N-S and continued beyond the northern and southern limits of the excavation. It is a continuation of the street found during the 1937-8 Colliton Park excavations, the most northerly cut which lay immediately south of the trench (3). Its projected line further north would take it within the eastern limits of the excavated area of the Roman Town House, but no trace of it was recorded during the Town House excavation, suggesting that the road did not continue this far, or had been completely disturbed or eroded away. The road was no more than about six metres wide. A single ditch or gutter [155] was found on the east side of the road. The gutter was 2.2m wide and 0.45m deep, with sloping sides and a flat base.

Finds from the ditch fill and road surface suggest that it was initially constructed and used in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD, contemporary with the initial laying out of the Roman town. No buildings appear to be associated with the early phase of the road. There was no indication of repairs during this early phase. During the third century, the road appears to have been abandoned for a time, as a layer of silt containing 2nd and 3rd century pottery and a late 3rd century coin of Victorinus sealed the road surface.

Subsequently the road was remetalled some time during the late 3rd or 4th century with a layer of limestone and flint rubble [457], 0.6m thick. At this time Building [572] was constructed on the western side of the road frontage. The final period of abandonment of the road is not known.

Wessex Archaeology, 1988, County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10074.

<1> Smith, R J C, 1993, Excavations at County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, 1988 in the North-West Quarter of Durnovaria (Monograph). SDO9660.

<2> Smith, R J C, 1988, 'Excavations at County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester, 1988' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9661.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 552-3 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(180) STREET, traced at Colliton Park in 1938 by C. D. Drew and K. C. C. Selby for some 90 yds. (69029080 to 69009089; Fig. p. 554). No remains survived to the N., where it could have been joined by the paths leading E. from the 4th-century house (182). The alignment of 349° suggests that, although of inferior construction, it was a continuation of street (178). It was perhaps about 15 ft. wide but the metalling, consisting of a thin skin of unmortared flints and small stones laid carelessly on the natural Chalk or over the fillings of earlier features, was nowhere found complete. A later metalling of similar character and condition was laid above it, over deposits of earth and debris. Monuments (186) and (187) encroached on the original line, and the remetalling was substantially reduced in width between them. To the S. the street, represented by a single metalling, crossed the filling of a disused water conduit, Monument (227b), which, according to MS. lists in D.C.M., here contained 4th-century sherds. If the conduit was originally covered or bridged, the street may have been part of the earlier town plan despite the evident lateness of the metalling here. (Dorset Procs. LX (1938), 64, pls. ix and x; site notebooks, section drawings, in D.C.M.).’

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:30PM