Monument record MDO18739 - Wadham House Roman Street B

Evidence for a Roman street was discovered during excavations behind Wadham House, High West Street, Dorchester in 1968. Street B represents a widening and re-metalling along the same N-S course of the earlier Street A at the east end of the site. After the filling of the conduit adjacent to and east of Street A, and the accumulation of a grey-green silty soil containing late 2nd century material, the edge of the street was extended over the conduit fill. A further layer of grey-green silt, also containing late 2nd century pottery, then accumulated over this discontinuous metalling. Above this soil was laid a mixture of building rubble and lumpy mortar that had been compacted and had signs of surface wear. Presumably this served as a road or path. A further major re-metalling of graded hard packed flints was laid directly on to this rubble. Two drainage gullies were dug on either side of this final surface. This surface appears to be contemporary with the construction of Wall A in the mid 3rd century.

Found during the excavation of a 27.5m x 3m trench during December and January 1968-9, dug in advance of the redevelopment of the back garden of Wadham House, 50 High West Street, Dorchester. The Excavation has been published as part of the ‘Dorchester Excavations Volume 1’ (Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Monograph 2) (1).

Street B represents a widening and re-metalling along the same N-S course of the earlier Street A at the east end of the site. After the filling of the conduit adjacent to and east of Street A, and the accumulation of a grey-green silty soil containing late 2nd century material, the edge of the street was extended over the conduit fill. A further layer of grey-green silt, 0.15m thick and also containing late 2nd century pottery, then accumulated over this discontinuous metalling.

Above this soil layer was laid a mixture of building rubble and lumpy mortar that had been compacted and had signs of surface wear. It was interpreted by the excavator that this served as a road or path, although another explanation might be that it was a ‘bottoming’ layer upon which the road surface would be laid.

A surface layer was laid directly on to this rubble, consisting of hard packed flints 0.65m thick at maximum and grading from 0.11 x 0.09 x 0.08m on the base to moderately fine gravel on the surface. This surface appears to be contemporary with the construction of Wall A in the mid 3rd century, although their exact relationship is destroyed by gully 1.

Gullies 1 and 2 flank this latest phase of metalling. Gully 1, to the east, was 1.4m wide and 0.75m deep. A small pit, 0.7m diameter, was dug into its silt when it was half full, both pit and gully contained late 3rd century material. Gully 2, on the west side of the road, was 0.65m wide and 0.50m deep.

It is possible that this well constructed N-S road represents a continuation of the massively constructed road on the same alignment recorded at Somerleigh Court in 1949, RCHM monument 178 [2]. A substantial building seems to have been constructed on the east side of Street B as represented by Wall A.

<1> Draper, J, and Chaplin, C, 1982, Dorchester Excavations Volume 1: Excavations at Wadham House 1968; Dorchester Prison 1970, 1975 and 1978; and Glyde Path Road 1966, 3-26 (Monograph). SDO9690.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1410290 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:31PM