SDO15225 - South Walk, Charles Street Development Phase 1, Dorchester, Dorset. Archaeological Assessment Report

Report on excavation and observations and recording Wessex Archaeology in advance of and during groundworks for construction of a new office building and associated services on a site (1,750m²) adjacent to South Walks and the southern edge of the town’s Roman defences. Fourteen trenches of varying sizes were excavated for building foundations, lift shafts and services. This work showed that significant structural and deposit sequences of predominantly Roman-British date survived on the site, and this was particularly evident in areas where groundworks were of sufficient depth to extend below the medieval and post-medieval soil build-up filling the natural chalk coombe in this part of the town. The earliest recorded features are of mid- to late- 1st century AD date and contained pottery of pre-Flavian date (around AD70) which, along with other aspects of the finds assemblage (including clay ‘gridiron’ fragments, terra nigra and regional pottery wares and a stone column fragment) may all be subtle indications of a military presence in the immediate vicinity. The relative concentration of 1st century AD material in Dorchester has been thought to reflect a military presence close to a crossing of the River Frome, though structural evidence for this has yet to be discovered. A small number of features of early date recorded in Trenches 1 and 2, including post-built structures and pits, suggest settlement and associated land boundaries associated with agricultural or horticultural activities.