Monument record MDO18830 - Late Roman building, Glyde Path Road, Dorchester

Parts of a stone-walled late Roman building were uncovered during excavations in 1880 and 1966. The building appears to comprise two separate blocks, both on the same NNW-SSE alignment about seven metres apart. The area between the two blocks was not investigated, so it is unclear exactly how the two were related. The eastern block (Building 1) was only partly exposed and comprised parts of three rooms, all of which had coarse tessellated floors. The rooms were largely defined by robber trenches, except for a small area of surviving dressed limestone wall in the northwest part, with some surviving in situ white-painted plaster. The western block (Building 2) also comprised three rooms defined by stone and flint walls, though the full extent of this block was not exposed. No floors survived. A large number of fragments of painted wall plaster was found within the rooms. A stone-lined well, apparently of Roman date, was found adjacent to this building, which was first investigated by Hogg in 1880. The lack of associated finds makes it difficult to determine the functions of the various rooms and blocks. It is notable that all the rooms in the eastern block were furnished with tessellated floors, perhaps suggesting it was the main living block. The western block apparently did not have any tessellated floors and may have been an ancillary range, perhaps a kitchen or similar, with a well in close proximity. The building probably dated to the mid to late 4th century and was in use to the end of the century. There is no evidence for the date of abandonment of the building.

Part of a Roman town house was found in the 1880s, and partially excavated in 1966. Three rooms with simple mosaic pavements and part of another simpler building on the same alignment were exposed by excavation in 1966 prior to development in Glyde Path Road. The buildings were probably built mid or later C4th, and probably continued in use until the late C4th or early C5th. Parts of these buildings had been excavated in the 1880s. <1> <6>

Parts of a late Roman building were uncovered during excavations undertaken on behalf of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society in an old garden on Glyde Path Road in 1966 (1). Some of this building had been previously exposed in c. 1810 and again in 1880 <4-5>.

The building appears to comprise two separate blocks, both on the same NNW-SSE alignment about seven metres apart. The area between the two blocks was not investigated so it is unclear exactly how the two were related. The western block was largely exposed by B A Hogg in 1880 and only a very small part of the eastern block. The western block comprised three rooms defined by stone and flint walls. The western and southern limits of this building have not been found. It comprised a small room in the NE corner and a larger room to the west with another room to the south. There appeared to be a doorway in the east wall at the NE corner of the southern room. The flooring material of this building is not known. A large number of fragments of painted wall plaster was found within the rooms. A stone-lined well was found adjacent to this building.

The eastern block (Building 1) was not totally exposed and would have continued further east and south beyond the limits of the site. The northern limits of the building were not defined with certainty, but the western side of the building was well-defined by the remains of an external wall. The walls of the building were constructed on ?flint footings. At the northern end of the western wall, part of a dressed limestone wall, 0.6m wide, survived above the footings, with in situ traces of white-painted wall plaster on the eastern (internal) face. Most of the internal walls had been removed by robbing. Room 1, in the NE part was defined largely by robber trenches and measured 2.0m wide and over 3.6m long.

Room 1 had a tessellated floor consisting of stripes of coarse red and pale grey tesserae. Part of this floor was exposed by Hogg in 1880. The floor was laid on a bed of mortar 0.15m thick, overlying a 0.2m thick soil layer on top of the natural chalk. Room 1 may have been a corridor. Room 2 lay to the west of Room 1. This Room was 2.6m wide and over 10m long and had a tessellated floor comprising coarse red and pale grey tesserae in a checkerboard pattern with a wide border of grey tesserae. This floor was laid on a bed of mortar 0.15m thick, overlying a 0.2m thick soil layer on top of the natural chalk. There were traces of white-painted wall plaster on the west wall of this room and no moulding was found at the junction between the floor and wall. Room 3 lay to the south of Room 1 and east of Room 2 and was probably over 5.5m by 4.25m in size. It was floored with a coarse tessellated pavement of grey tesserae with a red line with a right-angled turn. The floor of this room appears to have slumped into an earlier pit, but this was not excavated. A coin, probably lost between AD390-425, was found wedged between two tesserae in this floor. <8>

No in situ deposits survived above the level of the floors of the building, but quantities of Roman material were found in the overlying soil, including quantities of stone roof tile. The bulk of the pottery from the site dates to the late Roman period, although there is a small quantity of earlier samian wares. The date of the building is probably in the mid to late 4th century as there are a number of sherds of New Forest wares dating to the mid-late 4th century AD were found in the mortar bedding for the tessellated floors in the eastern block. The lack of associated finds makes it difficult to determine the functions of the various rooms and blocks. It is notable that all the rooms in the eastern block were furnished with tessellated floors, perhaps suggesting it was the main living block. The western block apparently did not have any tessellated floors and may have been an ancillary range, perhaps a kitchen or similar, with a well in close proximity. There is no evidence for the date of abandonment of this building.

<1> Moule, H J, n. d., Notes made by Mr H. J. Moule on Roman mosaic floors found in or around Dorchester, no. 1 (Unpublished document). SDO10092.

<2> 1880, 'Discovery of a Roman Pavement'. Dorset County Chronicle, 3 (Article in serial). SDO9809.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Various, Ordnance Survey Map 1:500, 1887 (Map). SWX1328.

(SY69129088) ROMAN VILLA (R) (Site of)

<4> Moule, H J, 1901, Dorchester Antiquities, 13 (Bibliographic reference). SDO9439.

<5> Moule, H J, 1906, Dorchester Antiquities, 33 (Bibliographic reference). SDO9552.

<6> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, p568 (Monograph). SDO150.

<7> 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, 103-110 (Monograph). SDO9690.

<8> Cosh, S R, and Neal, D S, 2005, Roman Mosaics of Britain. Volume II South-west Britain, 103 (Monograph). SDO10182.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1410247 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:32PM