Monument record MDO6028 - Roman Road, Stour floodplain, Sturminster Marshall (Part of Roman Road V: Badbury Rings to Dorchester)

Part of the Roman road from Badbury Rings to Dorchester where it crosses the River Stour at Shapwick and survives as a slight earthwork. A layer of flint nodules forming part of the base of this road was recorded during the evaluation of the route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme in 2012. The Roman road is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

This monument refers only to the section of the Badbury Rings to Dorchester Roman road where it survives as a slight agger as it crosses the floodplain of the river Stour.

A geophysical survey of the proposed route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme crossed the line of the road in an apparent gap in the earthwork. It identified two linear anomalies on the line of the earthwork and which may be associated with the Roman road. [3]

An evaluation trench was cut across the line of the road in the apparent gap in the earthwork as part of the evaluation of the proposed route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme in 2012. This revealed a dense spread of sub-angular and rounded flint nodules about 7.9m wide, which is probably the base course of the Roman road agger. No signs of any associated roadside ditches were identified in the trench. [4]

The Roman road is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery [6-7] and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), xxxiv (Monograph). SDO129.

'Road V. Badbury Rings to Dorchester. The road from Old Sarum divides immediately N.E. of Badbury Rings and one branch of it (Margary's No. 4e) heads S.W. towards Dorchester. […] The road […]crosses the Stour just S. of the church [St Bartholemew's, Shapwick] and continues as a slight agger across the floodplain of the river.'

<2> Lovell J, 1997, Southern Electric 11Kv Cable Replacement, Sturminster Marshall, Dorset: Archaeological Watching Brief (Unpublished document). SDO12425.

<3> Marsh, B and Biggs, M, 2012, Geophysical Survey Report Corfe Mullen to Salisbury WTS, 32 (Unpublished document). SDO14089.

Four weak positive linear anomalies have been identified across area G20
and are probably associated with former cut features such as ditches of
possible archaeological origin. Of particular note are anomalies 325 and 326
which are in close proximity to the documented route of a Roman Road and
do appear to follow a similar orientation.

<4> Havard, T and Nicholl, M, 2013, Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Transfer Scheme, Wessex Water, Dorset and Wiltshire: Archaeological Evaluation, 9-10 (Unpublished document). SDO14094.

Trench 5 was targeted upon a geophysical anomaly identified in a gap in the postulated course of a Roman road running from Dorchester to Silchester the line of which was clearly visible in relief to south-west and north-east of the trench. A dense spread, 5003, comprising sub-angular and rounded flints up to 0.2m x 0.2m in size was identified centrally within the trench. This spread measured approximately 7.9m in width, corresponded to the targeted geophysical anomaly and is likely to have represented a base course of the agger of the Roman road. No signs of any associated roadside ditches were identified in the trench.

<5> Papworth, M, 1994, Shapwick Parish, Kingston Lacy Estate, Wessex Region, 63 (Unpublished document). SDO14228.

A scheduled length of Dorchester to Badbury Roman road is 850m long. The agger is clear along most of this length and in places the side ditches and beyond these the outer banks can be seen. The agger is up to19m wide and 1.5m high. The full width of the earthwork from the outer bank exterior to outer bank exterior is 36.5m wide.

<6> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 FP 1106 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18311.

<7> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Jul 7 2023 2:03PM