SWX8504 - Wareham Sewer replacement, Dorset. Report on Archaeological observation and Recording 1994/1995

The observation and recording did not expose extensive areas of deposits/ features of archaeological significance. This is largely a reflection of the limited areas in which there was potential for the survival of in situ deposits; the greater part of the scheme was in areas of previous ground disturbance associated with the installation of the original sewer pipe. Overall, the Wareham sewer replacement scheme has not entailed significant archaeological impact. The main area of interest proved to be at Mayor's Quay (quayside car park) where an in situ medieval soil horizon (12th to 14th centuries AD) was observed and recorded some 1.2m below the current ground surface. No features associated with earlier quayside structures were observed. To date there has been little opportunity to record subsurface deposits in Mayor's Quay. In 1974 "holes on the Quay", dug by contractors were observed but were "archaeologically sterile and appeared to be in recently made-up ground" (Hinton and Hodges 1978, 45; Fig. 3c - site r). Hinton has noted that there is evidence that the Quay area is a post-Saxon encroachment on the riverside, and that the original shoreline was on the edge of the gravel terrace, beneath or behind the houses on the north side of the quay (ibid, 45) - see Fig. 1. The observations from the Wareham sewer replacement support this view and the information the project has provided about the date, nature and sequence of sub-surface deposits at Mayor's Quay is of some interest for local archaeological records. The nature of any deposits beneath the 13th/14th century soil horizon cannot be gauged but earlier in situ deposits may be preserved at greater depths.