SDO14160 - A35 Tolpuddle to Puddletown Bypass, Dorset. Hill Barn Borrow Pit, Near Tolpuddle. Archaeological Evaluation

‘An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 1997 of the area of a proposed borrow pit for the new A35 Tolpuddle to Puddletown bypass. The site lies to the north of the village of Tolpuddle (centred on SY 7920 9510). Two trial trenches were excavated by machine, representing a 2% sample of the site. A single large amorphous feature of uncertain origin was recorded in one of the trenches. A small collection of worked flint, burnt flint and Late Iron Age or Early Romano-British (1st century BC/1st century AD) pottery was recovered from the fill of the feature. An insubstantial colluvial (hill-wash) deposit was recorded in the base and lower sides of a dry valley which runs approximately north-south along the eastern side of the site. No datable finds were recovered from the colluvium. Overall, there appears to be a low potential for in situ archaeological remains within the application area. The single feature identified is considered more likely to be of natural rather than anthropogenic origin. The archaeological and environmental material within the feature are likely to have been derived from elsewhere, most probably on the higher ground to the west of the application area. No Late Iron Age or Early Roman site is known in the immediate vicinity and the implications of the evaluation results are therefore of some interest in that they suggest that a Late Iron Age and/or Early Roman site lies nearby, yet to be discovered.’