Monument record MDO30008 - Medieval or post-medieval building, Colliton Park, Dorchester

A stone wall with an associated chalk surface was found adjacent to the south east corner of County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester in 1947-8. At first thought to be Roman, excavation showed these features to be later in date, and they may represent part of a building of later medieval or early post-medieval date.

In December 1947, Miss P A M Keef noticed that a Romano-British plaster floor, thinly scattered with burnt material, had been revealed in section by workmen building a wall at the SE angle of the County Offices, Colliton Park. Immediately beneath the floor was sealed a shallow gully or pit and a deeper pit or ditch of U-shaped profile filled with rich black earth. Some fragments of samian ware and coarse pottery, and a coin of Herennia Etruscilla (the wife of Trajan Decius, 249-51) were found during operations by the workmen, the coin being retained by the finder. Traces of more modern soil disturbance, building debris, and a few scraps of Mediaeval pottery were observed, as was a charred piece of oak water pipe only 2 feet below the modern surface. In March 1948 Miss Keef found the remains of a wall associated with the plaster floor, below which were found races of an earlier floor and a hearth containing a fragment of Belgic type pottery. Below the earlier floor was found what was thought to be corn-drying oven containing sherds of coarse R-B pottery and a rounded stone slab. <1>

The floor described as plaster proved on excavation to be rammed chalk after excavation by RAH Farrar i Sep-Oct 1949. Pottery found in the floor and in the pit although mostly R-B, contained a significant proportion of Mediaeval pottery, proving that the floor and pit were Mediaeval, not R-B, and were not earlier than the 12th-13th centuries. <2>

Colonel Drew, Curator of the County Museum drew a sketch map of the site, which was located and surveyed. It is now covered by a wall flanked on either side by lawns and flower gardens. <4>

Excavations and observations at the south east corner of County Hall, Colliton Park in 1947-9 revealed traces of a collapsed stone wall and an apparently associated rather discontinuous chalk surface. The plan shape and size of this structure was not exposed and it is unclear what was its form and function . No secure dating evidence was obtained but the chalksurface sealed a pit containing 12th or 13th century pottery and was sealed by a layer containing eighteenth and nineteenth century material, including a large quantity of clay pipes, pipe wasters and lumps of pipe clay. There is no indication that this material was derived from the building and may have been brought it to level up the area. <1-3>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1949, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1948, 60-61 (Serial). SDO48.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1950, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1949, 63 (Serial). SDO49.

<3> Farrar, R A H, 1948, Colliton Park, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO13152.

<4> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 01-Sep-1954 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1430572 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:40PM