SDO9817 - 'Roman and Medieval Relics at Dorchester Castle' Dorset County Chronicle

The text of the newspaper report is reproduced in full below. "Mr. Lawrance, the able and intelligent Governor of the County Prison, which now occupies the commanding site of what was once the Castle of Dorchester, and was at another time the ecclesiastical site of its priory, picturesquely overhanging the lower branch of the Frome, was kind enough to furnish us some time ago, with the subjoined report of his continuous discovery of relics on the eastern slope of the grounds at North Square, along with drawings of the various objects turned up, which we have also enjoyed opportunities of otherwise examining: but for several reasons, we did not make the Governor’s remarks public, more especially until the opinion of several learned bodies had been elicted, as has now been done, and the operations (which had, economically speaking, in view of the improvement of the piece of ground, and the obtaining of rough stones, in which it necessarily much abounded, for the erection of an outer wall now in progress) were pushed nearly to a close. The annexed paper speaks for itself; but we may add that, in carrying out the trench referred to towards its conclusion, not only a very perfect Roman Fibula or buckle, of highly classic contour in brass; and a handsome brooch pin of Norman style and character, have been dug up amongst other relics, chiefly fragments of pottery; but in a spot where two attempts had evidently been made at well-digging in the chalk; one 8 feet in depth, and another 30 feet, probably during some siege in the Royalist wars – a sixpence of Charles II was discovered at the latter depth, and eventually theprogress of the trench lay bare the zig-zag curvatures of ravelins, bastions, and escarpments, forming the traces of a perfectly Vauban-like system of fortifications with outworks 30 feet apart. We now give the Governor’s memoranda, and shall add anything farther with which he may favour us: -- PARTICULARS OF THE ROMAN PAVEMENTS FOUND IN THE GROUNDS OF DORCHESTER CASTLE. In preparing a grave in the Burial-Ground, for James Seal, executed for murder, August 10th 1858, a small portion of Roman tesselated pavement was discovered at a depth of four feet. The digging for this purpose was suspended, but the earth was removed so long as any tessellae were to be met with. The result was the discovery of a magnificent pavement, twenty feet square, one corner of which, however, had been destroyed by former interments. The beautiful centre was fortunately undamaged and entire, as well as the remaining portion of the pavement, together with the threshold. The pavement itself, now measuring ten feet five and a half, by six feet two inches, was transferred to the chapel of the establishment, and placed within the Communion rails, where it presents a beautiful appearance; and having been transferred piece by piece, under my own superintendence (the total number of tessellae being 16,864), by David Pearce, a clever and most intelligent workman in the employ of Mr. Gregory of this town, the whole breadth of the pattern is now seen in its entirety and originality; no foreign substance having been employed to make good any portion of it. It may interest some persons to learn the expense of removal, which amounted only to £9 12s. and the time occupied by Pearce, assisted by a labourer was thirty days. The gross weight of the pavement, including the tiles and cement used in its setting is 11¾ cwt. The outer border, composed of larger and rougher stones, together with the threshold, have been undisturbed, and a stone marks their site in the Castle field. Immediately under the centre of the flooring, an oyster shell was found. Portions of the stone roofing of the house, and a small coin of Constantine the Great, were among the rubbish on the pavement; the former have been sent to the Dorset County Museum; the latter was affixed to the inscription above the pavement in the Chapel. After the removal of the pavement, being desirous to ascertain on what foundation it was placed, we bored, and found layers of flints, three in number; upon each layer was placed lime concrete to the depth of six inches, making altogether a solid bed more than two feet in thickness, quite impervious to damp. At the bottom, the bore came to the virgin chalk, which exhibited signs of containing much moisture. At a distance of eighteen feet from the threshold, in a slanting direction, due east, a pit of rough stones, nine feet deep, was met with, four feet below the present surface. Among the earth with which it had been filled up, charcoal, bones of animals, pieces of Roman pottery, and many fragments of a peculiar kind of vase were dug up. A wall, five feet in length, four in breadth, but only two in depth, abutted upon one side of this pit, which was terminated by another, ten feet long, in a south westerly direction; this was again intersected by one, twenty two feet in length, running south east, which was met by another wall of eighteen feet, turning north east, where it was built into another of only four feet in length, and proceeded no further. At this point were discovered several large stones carefully sawn and dressed, two of which were curiously carved, and a portion of the cement with which the wall of the rooms were covered, had been painted pale greet, with a border of marone, and two shades of red. These colours were perfectly fresh when exhumed, but as the cement became dry, they began to fade, and I deemed it expedient to have them sized and varnished in order to preserve them. In the centre of the space, partly enclosed by the walls already mentioned, another pit, five feet in depth, built of rough stone, was found, which also contained charcoal, pieces of pottery, portions of Roman vases, and animal bones. These relics were generally turned up with the earth throughout the excavations near the walls. Several bone pins were found embedded in the earth, one of which had a flat circular head; another, a head of a fourteen sided geometrical solid; and another a roundish one; (their lengths varied from two to four inches) the glass bottom from a small, and rather flat, vessel; a boar’s tusk and tooth in excellent preservation; and a considerable quantity of the bones and teeth of the ox. The cork of an amphora, with a circular bronze plate and ring on the top for drawing it, a bronze shaft passing through the cork ,fastened by a small plate at the bottom, as also a piece of the neck of the amphora fitting the cork, were brought to light. The stones appeared to me to be of Norman design, but whether the following extract from Hutchin’s history of Dorset, p.381, which I subsequently met with, would at all prove my theory to be correct, I must leave to be decided by more competent authority – “The castle, out of whose ruins the Priory was built, was raised, as some suppose, by the Romans, who walled the town; or, as others, rebuilt by William the Conqueror, after it had been destroyed by the Danes.” The foundations I have already described, were bounded on the north side, at a distance of three feet, by another wall of stone, seven feet from the surface, twenty in length, varying in breadth from two and a half to five feet; its depth in front was seven feet, but behind only two, being built upon the solid chalk. It appears the earth had been removed, in front, in the form of a square, for some purpose, but was afterwards filled up, which would account for its greater height on this side. The portion of this wall, at the north west end, appeared to terminate suddenly, but subsequent excavations clearly evinced that it had proceeded at one time further, but had been removed, the exact width being seen, but no vestiges of it were to be found. In the square place were discovered the vase marked 1, portions of another marked 2, and, under the foundation of the wall, that numbered 3. Having thus concluded our digging as far as we could proceed, I could not satisfy myself, that the threshold of this beautiful pavement should only open upon these apparent outbuildings, I therefore determined to open the earth from this spot, when again at the depth of four feet from the surface, we came upon some splendid portions of pavement, designed in medallions, encircled by a guilloche of Page 524 the same pattern as that exhumed in 1854, but different in colour; the tessellae had been much disturbed, so that no portion of the original pattern could be distinctly made out, with the exception of the border, which was entire, and will be transferred to the chapel in the same manner as the Pavement. The site of this apartment was upon made ground, over which chalk was spread, one foot in depth; the whole was entirely covered by a solid mass of flints and cement grouted together, three feet in thickness upon which the pavement was laid. Continuing our excavations, we discovered the wall of this room two feet in thickness, circular in form; the size of this apartment was eighteen feet; the door step of the room, which contained the pavement originally discovered, communicated with this from the same level. Many fragments of the painted walls, in good preservation, were here met with; red bordered with black; white, with a border of black and red. I venture to remark, that the fact of the square pit having been built in the centre of this room, appears to proclaim the foundations previously described to be of more recent date, consequently not Roman; for it is scarcely to be imagined that, in constructing what appeared to be an ash pit, it should have been erected in the centre of a room, or, that so magnificent a pavement should be destroyed for that purpose, as was the case in this instance. The boundary wall, however, already alluded to, on the north side, bears evidence of being Roman. The foundations of a wall, in a south westerly direction, 36 feet in length, formed the side of the two rooms already described. Part of another wall, and some remains of tesselated pavement, with a border of a chain pattern, exactly similar to that presented to the County Museum, proclaimed the existence of another apartment, but the Mosaics were so disarranged that it was out of the question to decide what the pattern had been. The centre of this room, however, was composed only of only stone-coloured Mosaics of a larger size, formed in a circle. The border of the pavement, which was the only vestige remaining and which was presented to the County Museum, makes the fourth ampartment in the suite of rooms. I intend to cut a trench through the field, where these remains were met with, so soon as the weather is favourable for the purpose, but, at present, I have no additions to make to this brief account of our operations. J.V.D.LAWRANCE Governor of the County Prison Dorchester Castle, Jan. 4th, 1859."