SDO12581 - Further archaeological investigations during groundworks at the new village hall site, Church Mead, Toller Porcorum, Dorset

A number of features relating to the medieval phase of occupation and land use of the site was identified and excavated during the monitoring of groundworks for the construction of the new village hall and associated services at Church Mead, Toller Porcorum. Of significance were several features identified in a foul drain and electricity service trench, preserved beneath a buried soil horizon. These features comprised a platform, a large ditch with an adjacent revetted bank, and a second ditch defined to the NW by a wall. The platform may represent the lower of the two house platforms surveyed previously by Bournemouth University as part of an extensive research project. The revetted bank appeared to broadly correspond with an earlier land division between Wood Mead and Church Mead. The wall and ditch to the SE of this feature may also be indicative of an early land division. A number of other ephemeral and discrete features were also observed and recorded, several of which were later considered to be natural in origin.