Monument record MDO18801 - Merchant's Garage, High West Street, Dorchester; Late Roman building

The remains of a Late Roman town house were found during observations and recording at the site of the former Merchant’s Garage, High East Street, Dorchester in 1983. The building was largely destroyed and only part of the plan was exposed. The walls were of mortared flint and limestone. Several rooms had chalk floors and one had the remains of a tessellated floor. The building was demolished in the late 4th or early 5th century AD.

The remains of a large Late Roman house were found during observations and recording at the site of the former Merchant’s Garage, High East Street, Dorchester in 1983 (1) (2). The building was aligned roughly ENE-WSW, roughly parallel with the street grid of the Roman town and on a different alignment to the earlier Roman buildings on this site. Most of this building had been destroyed and part of it lay outside the area of the site to the south and the east. The surviving wall remnants were of mortared flint and limestone. The ground plan could not be reconstructed, but parts of at least 4 or 5 rooms were present. At the northeast corner, there were two closely-set parallel walls running ENE-WSW, perhaps indicating some rebuilding or remodelling of the original design of the building. An infant burial 343 was found buried in a small cut beneath the line of the later of these walls, presumably a foundation deposit. Several fragments of floor associated with this building were discovered, including a fragment of tessellated floor, which was set in a room at least 4.4m wide and comprised parts of a coarse border with an outer border of grey, then four bands of white, red, grey and red (4). There may have been a central mosaic panel, but this had been completely removed Two postholes had been cut into the mortar base near the centre of the tessellated floor. To the south of the tessellated floor, there were the remains of a chalk floor and another chalk floor was found in the room to the east. At the very eastern end of the site was another chalk floor.

The size of this building and the presence of a tessellated floor suggests that this was a large Late Roman town house and can be paralleled with similar 4th century houses found at Colliton Park to the north (5). No dating evidence survives for the period of construction of this building. However, demolition layers and a pit dug through the northern part of the building filled with demolition debris, contained late 4th-5th century AD pottery, which suggests the building was demolished in the late 4th-early 5th century.

<1> Bellamy, P S, 1991, Observations at Merchant’s Garage, High West Street, Dorchester, 1983. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 41-54 (Article in serial). SDO9677.

<2> Bellamy, P S, 1983, Merchant's Garage, High West Street, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10188.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 150 (Serial). SDO83.

<4> Cosh, S R, and Neal, D S, 2005, Roman Mosaics of Britain. Volume II South-west Britain, 105 (Monograph). SDO10182.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 553-560 (Monograph). SDO150.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1431038 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:31PM