Monument record MDO467 - Roman ditch at The Ramblers, Bradford Peverell

A ditch recorded during the archaeological evaluation of a proposed development site in 1995. Possibly a flanking ditch for the Roman road from Dorchester to Ilchester.

A ditch at least 1.5m wide and 0.3m deep recorded in Trench 3 of an evaluation. The full width of the ditch was not determined, since its northern edge was beyond the edge of the trench. The filling of the ditch consisted of a very light brown silty loam. No finds were recovered from the filling of the ditch, and its date is unclear. However, the excavators noted that it lay south of the projected line of the aqueduct serving the Roman town of Dorchester. They felt that it was too far upslope to represent a continuation of the aqueduct, but that it might be a side ditch to the Roman road northwards from Dorchester. (1)

Subsequently two parallel ditches were observed in the course of groundworks for the new house. The ditches ran approximately north west to south east, this being parallel to the Roman road from Dorchester to Ilchester; this confirmed the results of the earlier evaluation. No finds were recovered from the filling of one ditch [7/13], and the other [10] yielded patinated worked flint and unglazed sandy pottery, dated to the 13-14th century and with similarities to some Southampton types. The archaeologists felt that the absence of modern material from the fillings of ditch [7/13] suggests that it is of some antiquity, while the pottery recovered from the bottom of the filling of ditch [10] dated it securely as medieval.

The archaeologists concluded that the way that this medieval ditch respects the line of the Roman road suggests that the road may still have been in use, either as a route or a boundary, at that period. They observed that the nature of the terrain leaves few alternative routes for a road down into Bradford Peverell: hence the present Dorchester Road also follows the assumed line of the Roman Road. (2)

<1> Smith, R, 1995, 'The Ramblers', Bradford Peverell, Dorchester, Dorset. Archaeological Field Evaluation (Unpublished document). SDO12342.

<2> Whitehead B, 1997, Summary Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at Land Adjacent to 'The Ramblers', Bradford Peverell, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO12341.

Record last edited

Oct 27 2017 12:03PM