EDO4118 - Greyhound Yard, off South Street, Dorchester; excavation 1955 to 1956

An excavation was undertaken on a vacant area of ground in Greyhound Yard, off South Street, Dorchester between December 1955 and February 1956, prior to the proposed redevelopment of the area into an arcade of shops. The area was previously occupied by some cottages, but these had been demolished not long before the excavations were carried out and their foundations were still visible. At the time of the excavations, the area was used as an unauthorised parking space. The excavations were carried out intermittently under the auspices of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society, directed by Aubrey L Parke, using boys from Hardye’s School. (1) (2) The excavation comprised of a series of 6ft square trenches. Initially four trenches were excavated with masonry remains found in the second and fourth trenches. Subsequently, it was decided extend the excavations to examine if there was any relationship between the masonry found in the second and fourth trenches and to determine if possible the extent and purpose of the masonry in the fourth trench. In the southern part of the site, the western part of a room was found containing free-standing hypocaust piers with the destroyed remains of a mosaic, painted wall plaster and other building debris found in the flues. Some of the walls had been robbed, but the surviving west wall had been plastered. To the north was a flint wall running northwards, the relationship with the building was not preserved. This wall was disturbed by a post-medieval chalk wall running E-W. A pit filled with Roman material was found in the NE corner of the excavation. The finds recovered appear to be mainly 3rd-4th century in date. A plan and description of the results is published by the RCHME (3). The medieval remains from the site were considered by Jo Draper as part of an article on the former St. Rowalds Chapel which lay in this area and the medieval pottery (13th century?) is described and illustrated (4). These building remains were reinterpreted and incorporated into the report on the 1984 excavations at Greyhound Yard undertaken by Wessex Archaeology (5). No plan appears to survive from excavation and the location of the trenches is taken from Woodward et al 1993 (5), but not all the trenches are mapped in this publication.