SDO14423 - Binnegar Quarry, East Stoke, Dorset. Results of trench evaluation (Including Scheduled Ancient Monument Dorset 29061)

‘An archaeological evaluation by means of trench excavation on land at Binnegar Quarry, near Wareham, Dorset, was carried out by AC archaeology during September 2002. A total of nine trenches was excavated, each 40m long and 2m wide and located throughout a proposed quarry extension area. Some of the trenches targeted anomalies recorded during an earlier geophysical survey, while a single trench was excavated across the recorded site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM Dorset 29061). In most trenches no evidence for archaeological activity, in the form of features or finds, was identified. It was also established that the anomalies identified during the geophysical survey were variations within the natural sands and gravels. The trench excavated across the Scheduled barrow has confirmed the presence of a ring ditch in this location, with the mound structure heavily damaged by recent ploughing, and the material from which seemingly only surviving within the ploughsoil.’