SDO14327 - Whitcombe Stable Yard, Dorchester, Dorset. Archaeological Field Evaluation

'In April 1998 Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Peter Bolton of Whitcombe Manor to carry out an archaeological evaluation of land at Whitcombe, Dorchester, Dorset centred on NGR SY 7205 8805. The archaeological evaluation was undertaken prior to the determination of an application for planning permission to construct a new stable yard, three houses and associated landscaping and car parking. The evaluation involved the machine-excavation of five trenches to a depth of between 1.05 and 1.4m deep. Bedrock comprising soliflucted chalk was recorded in three of the five trenches. In each tyrench a sequence of Valley Gravel and colluvial deposits was recorded. The colluvialk deposits predominantly comprise flinty, non-calcareous, dark brown silty clay loams. In trench 1 one sherd of Roman pottery was recovered from the colluvium indicating that at bleast part of the sequence dates from the Roman period or later. No archaeological features were recorded within, below or cut through the colluvium. In trench 1 colluvium was sealed below a possible bank deposit. This deposit may be associated with the immediately adjacent trackway and field boundary to the south. The one sherd of 13th century pottery dates this deposit to the medieval period or later. This might suggest that the trackway and field boundary are of an early origin, although documentary research mey be better able to establish the history of these features.'