SWX8611 - Proposed Tourist Information Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset: Preliminary Historical Assessment

This document sets out the results of preliminary historical assessment of the proposed construction of a tourist information centre, in South Street, Bridport. The site lies immediately south of the junction of South Street and Church Street and is currently part of a car park. It lies within the line of the presumed Saxon defences and on the junction of two medieval thoroughfares. Church Lane (now Church Street) is first mentioned in documentary sources in c.AD 1525. An archaeological evaluation of the site, prior to the determination of the planning application, has been requested by West Dorset District Council, as advised by the Dorset County Council Archaeological Officer. The presence of buildings on the site in 1772 raises the possibility that at least one late medieval structure remained here at the time. The most northerly structure appears to be the same as that shown on the 1901 OS map and which is considered to be a stone or brick structure. It is noteworthy that the Royal Commission Surveyor Bridport (RCHM 1950) does not include this structure, or any on the site, as being of historic interest, raising the possibility that none of the 1773 buildings survived into the second half of the twentieth century. Identifying remains of the structures shown on the 1773 map would be a priority in the evaluation trenching. No further interpretation of other buildings on the site is possible given the level of information available from map sources.