Monument record MDO23160 - Quarry, land at the rear of 24 West Borough, Wimborne Minster

A feature encountered in, and extending beyond, an evaluation trench. It was encountered beneath a layer of topsoil and cultivated soil of probable horticultural origin over a layer of dumped material which itself sealed the feature. The cut was 0.85m deep, with steep sides and a flat base, and the excavated section suggested to the excavators that the feature was sub-circular in shape. They interpreted it as either a quarry pit or the beginning of construction of a well, which had been abandoned.

The filling of the feature was loamy and relatively free of inclusions and artefacts. Hand excavation produced one flint scraper of later Neolithic/early Bronze Age date, four sherds of 13th or early 14th-century pottery and one piece of post-medieval tile or brick. The excavators felt that the absence of artefacts meant that this feature could not have been dug as a rubbish pit, or used as such after its original purpose had ceased. They concluded that, though it was possible that the post-medieval tile was intrusive, the evidence to date this feature to the medieval period was thin; they accordingly dated it to the post-medieval period. (1)

<1> Oakey, N, 2002, Land at rear of 24 West Borough, Wimborne Minster. Archaeological Evaluation (Unpublished document). SDO11583.

Record last edited

Dec 8 2009 4:11AM