SDO11515 - Proposed Car Park Extension to Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury, Dorset. Stage 1 Archaeological Evaluation: Augur Survey and Proposals for Stage 2 Machine Trenching

In November 1994 Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Salisbury Health Care to formulate a design for, and to undertake, an archaeological evaluation of the site of a proposed car park extension for the Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury, Dorset. The first stage of the evaluation, an auger survey, was undertaken in late January 1995. The results of this work, allied with those obtained by a radar survey undertaken by Emrad Limited, showed that there exists a consistent 1.20m to 1.35m of overburden over natural deposits across the site, except along the Magdalene Lane frontage where up to 1.80m of overburden are present. It is postulated that the linear depression along the Magdalene Lane frontage represents either a former line or edge of the road which has been subsequently backfilled and levelled during the use of the garden, of the former line of a defensive ditch perhaps relating to the Saxon burh. It is proposed that the Stage 2 machine trenching investigates the linear depression, two of the radar features and other more general areas of the site.