SDO10375 - Child’s Garage, Sherborne. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

‘Wessex Archaeology was commissioned…to undertake an archaeological evaluation of land to be developed as retirement properties on the site of Child’s Garage, Long Street…in March 1996. The project followed an earlier desk-based assessment which suggested that the site had potential for medieval remains fronting on to Long Street. The evaluation comprised five mechanically excavated trenches. Modern/post-medieval features were noted in Trenches 3 and 4. one of two stone wall footings in Trench 5 continued the alignment of the western wall of an extant building…and corresponds to a boundary shown on the OS map of 1903. the other wall is probably part of a small building shown on the same map.’ Trench 1 contained three severely truncated features cut in to the natural clay, one of which contained a medieval iron arrowhead. Two stratigraphically similar features in Trench 2 also contained medieval material, but little is known of their function. A watching brief was subsequently maintained on the site between April and June 1996. This demonstrated that much of the site had been severely disturbed by quarrying and post-medieval to modern features. these included garden features and a number of stone and brick structures. The small-scale quarries may be associated with the construction of nearby properties and the scarcity of finds may suggest that soil was imported to the site as backfill. This means that residual medieval pottery may not derive from the site. No in situ medieval features or deposits were identified suggested that those recorded in the evaluation were situated on isolated ‘pinnacles’ of undisturbed ground.