Monument record MDO19349 - Sainsbury's car park, Christchurch (site X15); Saxon town defences

An excavation at Sainsbury’s car park, Christchurch, during 1977 (site X15), revealed a late Saxon defensive ditch [ditch 1] containing a small group of late Saxon pottery. The ditch had a rounded V-profile and no apparent re-cuts. A subsequent machine cut trench 1m from the south side of the excavation revealed the associated bank in section.

K. Jarvis conducted a small excavation at Sainsbury’s car park, Christchurch, during 1977 (site X15). The results were subsequently published as a short note in DNHAS monograph 5 (1).

The excavations revealed 0.2-0.5m of natural gravel had been removed by the grading of the site for a car park. Only the late Saxon defensive ditch [ditch 1] survived with a width of 3.8m and a depth of 1.8m with a rounded V-profile. The fill was sandy brown loam with some lenses of gravel. The section suggested gradual silting with no re-cuts. All of the fill was coarse sieved in an attempt to retrieve dating evidence and all that was found was 10 sherds of late Saxon pottery and a stone bead (1). The absence of a Saxo-Norman re-cut in this ditch is at variance with the evidence from Pound Lane (Site X1). It may be that the grading of the site has removed this later phase, or conversely that the grading has removed the earlier phase and that the late Saxon sherds recovered from this site are residual in ditch 1, or ditch 1 has only one late Saxon rather than Saxo-Norman phase at this point.


A subsequent machine cut trench 1m from the south side of the excavation revealed the associated bank in section. This comprised a yellow sandy layer 0.3m thick with dark horizontal striations, sealing the natural gravel. This is now thought to be a natural dune formation scarped to form the defensive bank.

Jarvis, K S, 1977, Archaeological Excavations in Christchurch, Dorset. Interim Report (Unpublished document). SDO21189.

<1> Jarvis, K S, 1983, Excavations in Christchurch 1969-80, 51 (Monograph). SWX4028.

Record last edited

Dec 19 2024 1:58PM