Monument record MDO19077 - Somerleigh Court, Dorchester; Roman building

National Record of the Historic Environment, 1410232 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Dorset County Chronicle, 1889, Archaeological Find. Dorset County Chronicle, 4 (Article in serial). SDO9804.

Moule, H J, 1906, Dorchester Antiquities, 34-36 (Bibliographic reference). SDO9552.

Colley March, H, 1906, 'Roman Pavements' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 247 (Article in serial). SDO9778.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 562, no. 189e, f (Monograph). SDO150.

'(189) Building Remains with fragmentary mosaic and tessellated pavements have been found at Somerleigh Court, now the Maternity Wing of the County General Hospital, during building operations since 1862. They may belong to a large house or several houses, probably fronting on a street (178) to the E. … (e) A damaged mosaic, apparently over a hypocaust, was found in 1889 in a manhole a few feet W. of the porch of Somerleigh Court (69079050). A portion some 8 ft. by 5 ft. was relaid diagonally in the porch with a made-up border. Two panels 2 ft. square, one with an endless knot pattern, the other with a design of squares and triangles within a circle of two-strand guilloche, were enclosed by a black swastika pattern on a white ground. Other colours used were grey, blue-grey and red. The pavement lay 3 ins. above 'some beautifully constructed heating flues, about 4 ins. deep and 8 ins. wide', and a red plastered wall adjoined it to the E. It may have formed part of (f). (Letters from Sir R. Edgecumbe (1900) in D.C.M.; Moule, 34–6; Moule MS., 2, 11; D.C.C., 1st Aug. 1889; Dorset Procs. XXVII (1906), 247.)'

Record last edited

Jan 17 2024 12:10PM