SDO9480 - Dorchester First School, Interim Report on Archaeological Excavations on the Site of the Maiden Castle Road First School, Dorchester, Dorset.

The excavation of elements of an Iron Age enclosure, identified through aerial photographs and assessed by AC Archaeology in 1992, was concentrated on those parts of the enclosure due to be destroyed by terracing for a playing field. The work was conducted by AC Archaeology between September 20th and October 15th 1993. Topsoil stripping revealed the majority of the enclosure, with the exception of a strip along the eastern side under an extant hedge. The enclosure ditch (over 1.5 m deep) enclosed a roughly subrectangular area of about 0.2 acres. The enclosed Iron Age farmstead is significant not only for its completeness but also for the high level of preservation of its internal features. The overall internal organisation of the enclosure is clear from the plan. Dwellings, in the form of three roundhouses were confined to the wider western side of the enclosure and faced on to a metalled courtyard that lay immediately inside the gateway in its southern side. The eastern and northeastern part of the enclosure was open space, with evidence of storage pits along the back of the enclosing bank. Several phases of use can be deduced and the enclosure may have originally had an entrance in the west as well as the south. A number of four-posters were present.