SDO15198 - Land at the Old Fire Station, Trinity Street, Dorchester, Dorset. An Archaeological Evaluation.

‘Context One Archaeological Services Ltd (COAS) carried out an Archaeological Field Evaluation on land to the rear of the Old Fire Station, Trinity Street, Dorchester (centred on NGR SY 6914 9041), over two days (and one day for laying down tarmac) between the 28th January and 2nd February 2008. The investigation was commissioned and funded by Upfront Leisure Ltd as part of their application for planning permission to change the use of an existing building, carry out partial demolition, create a retail space and construct 11 No. 1 bedroom apartments and 3 No. studio apartments. … The work has established the presence of at least 1.6m and possibly up to 2.25m of late post-medieval/modern deposits over the Site, which may be protecting underlying medieval and Roman layers. Augering in two test pits established the presence of rubble layers at an average depth of 2.20m below ground level that may represent deposits of medieval/Roman date. The considerable depth of ‘overburden’ is greater than has been established at other sites in the area and may reflect the location of the site in a hollow, which has subsequently been infilled to a greater depth than surrounding slightly higher areas. If this is the case, it is possible that any deeply buried archaeological deposits will be relatively well preserved. Alternatively, this increased thickness of relatively recent deposits may reflect previous disturbance of the Site and subsequent backfilling. However, given that most sites within the historic core of the town contain significant deposits and structures of Roman date, this latter possibility is perhaps the less likely.’