SWX8614 - A354-A353 Dorchester to Weymouth Road Improvements, Archaeological Field Evaluation - Trial Trenching

The report describes the results of a programme of field evaluation involving trial trenching along the preferred Brown Route for the A354-A353 Weymouth-Dorchester road improvement scheme. The trial trenching is the culmination of a series of archaeological works, commissioned by Copper Partnership, on behalf of Dorset County Council, and undertaken in advance of the submission of a planning application for the proposed improvement scheme. A desk based assessment of the Brown Route was undertaken in spring 1993 and a report of the results (Wessex Archaeology Report No. W565a) was submitted to Cooper Partnership in May of this year. In view of the conclusions of the desk based study and in response to comments on the scope of the study presented by English Heritage, Wessex Archaeology undertook a minimally intrusive archaeological field evaluation of the route in September 1993. The fieldworks consist of a staged approach involving a range of techniques, including field walking, test pitting, geophysical survey and earthwork survey. The field evaluation examined both archaeological sites identified by the desk top study and those sections of the route where there was a potential for as yet unidentified archaeological deposits. Te results of this stage of fieldwork are present in Wessex Archaeology's report No. W565b. A further, more intensive, stage of evaluation by trial trenching, informed by the results of the initial, minimally intrusive, evaluation, was to comprise the final stage of the field evaluation work and this document sets out the results of this component of the archaeological programme.