SWX9186 - 'Bridport, 32 South Street' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

Number 32 is an 18th-century house, once of some social substance, situated on the west side of South Street. In the 20th century the house became municipal offices and some modifications to the buildings were maded including the addition of a Register Office in the 1950s. The gardens became a public space known as the Borough Gardens. The watching brief concerned a residential development immediately to the rear of the house. The topsoil of the site is a loamy made ground, typical of a long-established garden. Mechanical cutting of foundation trenches achieved depths of 1m and up to 1.5m in places. This revealed a deep green/brown sub-soil of silty clay with few inclusions, much disturbed by a matrix of pipes and soakaways of 19th- and 20th-century dates. The only archaeological features observed was a series of rubbish pits, typically containing saw-cut animal bones (including horse), sheep horns, and oyster shells. One pit also contained sherds of grey to orange fabric from a single pot that has an internal green glaze. This may be late 17th century in date.