SDO10377 - Child’s Garage, Sherborne, Dorset. Archaeological watching brief

Wessex Archaeology conducted an archaeological watching brief during groundworks Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Martin Young Associates on behalf of McCarthy and Stone (Developments) Ltd to undertake an archaeological watching brief on a site on which 17 retirement properties are to be built. The development site was formerly occupied in part by Child's Garage, Long Street (centred on ST 6398 1660). Desk-based assessment indicated that the site had high potential for medieval remains fronting onto Long Street. This potential appeared to be confirmed by evaluation trenching. However, the watching brief shows that much of the site has been affected by quarrying and/or the excavation of smaller features, possibly garden-related, in the post-medieval and modern periods. A small number of relict stone and brick-built features were observed, but these all appear to date to post-medieval/modern periods. The features interpreted as quarry pits almost certainly represent small-scale quarrying associated with the construction of nearby properties in the post-medieval period. The scarcity of finds suggests that much of the soil was clean material imported specifically as backfill. Consequently, the residual sherds of earlier medieval pottery may not derive from the current site. No earlier features such as those encountered in Evaluation Trenches 1 and 2 were recorded during the watching brief. It now appears that those trenches came down upon isolated pinnacles of the earlier land surface standing above an extensive area of later disturbance.