SDO15185 - Downs Quarry, Worth Matravers, Dorset. Archaeological Evaluation, January 2007

‘In January 2007, Terrain Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of the proposed site of a new quarry at Downs Quarry to the west of Langton Matravers, Dorset (NGR SY97827905). Six trenches were excavated in two fields to the north of the Swanage to Kingston B0369 road. This is the site of the Late Iron Age and Roman settlement and industrial site known as Gallows Gore West, which was investigated during quarrying activity in the 1930s and 1940s. The results of the evaluation showed that the whole of the area, except for the north end of the northern field was disturbed by former quarrying activity and no archaeology survives, other than a scatter of finds in the topsoil. At the northern end of the site, the remains of two drystone walls were found. These walls were associated with scatters of stone rubble and burnt stone, which included a small amount of abraded Late Iron Age pottery. These walls are probably the remains of field walls or part of an enclosure around the Iron Age/Roman site of Gallows Gore West.’