SDO14891 - Land West of Cranborne Road, Wimborne, Dorset. Post-excavation Assessment.

Report on excavations in 2016 by Wessex Archaeology in order to discharge Condition 23 of planning permission 3/14/0016/OUT. Geophysical survey of the entire proposed development area, east and west of Cranborne Road by Pre-Construct Archaeology in 2012 identified a number of possible archaeological features, and was followed by an evaluation by Bournemouth Archaeology in 2014. Additional geophysical survey commissioned in 2014 in response to the significant amount of medieval archaeological identified on the western side of Cranborne Road suggested a relatively dense concentration of geophysical anomalies, representing ditches and gullies which could be seen to correspond to the evaluation results. Because of the density of archaeological features, a programme of strip, map and sample excavation was undertaken in various parts of the proposed development area. Three areas (A, B and C) of high archaeological potential were identified o the east of Cranborne Road. A large number of pits and postholes of Late Bronze Age/early Iron Age date were identified within Area A, representing three possible domestic structures surrounded by a large enclosure ditch. Medieval and post-medieval features were identified in Areas A and B, including field boundaries and land drainage features. Some notable prehistoric worked flints were also recovered during the excavations, including two hand axes and a leaf-shaped arrowhead. This assessment report presents the results from excavations by Wessex Archaeology in 2015 of two areas (E and F) to the west of Cranborne Road. Area E (3.07ha) in the southern part of the site, was split into Areas E-south and E-north. Area F (0.13ha) was in the northern part of the site. Features identified, most in Area E-south, were mainly ditches and pits with a clear concentration along the eastern edge of site, following the curve of Cranborne Road. Many features could not be dated; those that could were mostly assigned to the Late Saxon and Late Saxon/medieval periods on the basis of the pottery recovered. The excavators identified a Late Saxon element (represented by pits and wells) in the early, Saxo-Norman development of the area. Subsequent Late Saxon/medieval development (the precise chronology cannot be determined from the pottery, though a 10th-12th century focus is indicated) included the laying out of a series of enclosures in two phases with evidence for mixed agricultural economy, and small-scale iron production in the vicinity. There is the potential to understand the nature and development of this economy through further analysis. Unfortunately, structural evidence is virtually absent, possibly because shallow slots and post-holes of timber buildings have not survived, though more likely because they lay immediately adjacent to Cranborne Road, outside the development area.