Monument record MDO23259 - Pits, Queen Elizabeth Grammar School site, King Street, Wimborne Minster

Small scale excavations carried out on the south side of King Street, south west of the Minster indicated that occupation was mainly 12th in date, earlier features, notably a beam slot, and 10th/11th century pottery demonstrate some Saxon activity within the area. Medieval structures were concentrated in the northern part of the area along King Street. There were no traces of the conjectured Medieval or earlier boundaries on the site. <1>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 151-152 (Serial). SDO83.

'In trench A the remains of the medieval period, beginning in the late 12th or early 13th century, comprised a number of small, often inter-cut pits. Large post holes were also found, frequently with the remains of a packing or lining of heath-stone, but no recognisable plan was recovered. Closer to the street frontage was the base of a square, clay and tile-built oven, which went out of use in the 16th century. The medieval features were concentrated in the northern part of the site, and few features and no early boundaries were found in the other trenches. In trench C however, a large stone-lined well was uncovered, built into a large cone-shaped construction pit, which contained medieval pottery. It is possible that the construction pit, of which only one side was revealed, may be the butt-end of a large medieval ditch, into which the well was later dug, and it is hoped to test this possibility with a magnetometer survey of the land adjacent to the site.

Very little evidence of post-medieval activity was found, apart from a scatter of pottery in the garden soils which covered much of the site. Traces of a timber building, with a stone-lined well were found in trench A, and two circular clay-lined pits. One of these contained the refuse from bone working.'

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 888380 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 16 2024 1:52PM