SDO9700 - Excavations for the Dorchester Excavation Committee, Interim Report, 1970: Dorchester Hospital, Site E.

A 25m section was cut through the gardens of Almshouses nos. 12-15 West Walks, in order to examine as much as possible of the W rampart and the area immediately behind it at this point. The secion showed 3.7m of the rear of the rampart, revealing a single construction of intermixed layers of turf and decayed chalk, with a 0.3-0.5m chalk capping. It was not possible to show whether this was the tail of the primary or secondary rampart, although a chalk lined cut through the turf line to the natural chalk at the most westerly point of the trench, and sealed by the rampart, could indicate a marking out trench, perhaps at the rear of the primary rampart. A close sequence of occupation levels was examined immediately to the rear of the rampart. This included a substantial wall parallel to and 4.5m behind the rampart, a sequence of three cobbled surfaces indicating a roadway running along the back of the rampart, each successive surface cutting further into the rampart, and a verandah built against the wall and extending as far as the road surface. A final phase seemed to post-date the verandah and wall; an extension was made to the cobbled area, and there was evidenc of a timber fence built on a flat limestone foundation at the edge of the trackway. A late Roman ditch ran behind the fence. Beyond this ditch to the east was a flint and mortar wall parallel to the rampart, with an E-W return and an internal cobbled floor. This building may have been timber with the walls forming a slight flint and mortar base. There was no evidence for domestic occupation and the purpose of the building is unknown. A post-medieval cobbled path was set into the back of the rampart.