EDO4355 - The Old Vicarage, High Street, Fordington, Dorchester; excavation 1971 Trench 1

Four trenches, a total area of about 180 sq. m, were dug during September 1971 in the gardens of the old vicarage in Fordington High Street, and in the vacant plot to the SE, prior to redevelopment of the site as flats for elderly people. This work was supplemented during the development stage by Mr E. Flatters who recorded information uncovered within the foundation trenches. All trenches were dug by hand, but the only stratigraphy undistrurbed by modern gardening was in the bottom 0.4m of trench 2 and the graves. The earliest features were eighteen inhumations and two cremations belonging to Roman Dorchester and forming part of the extensive cemetery previously known in the area. There were very few grave goods, but the little pottery found dated from the the 1st to the 4th centuries AD. There was no regular alignment of the graves. Most were extended in wooden coffins; a few were flexed. In one case the head had been severed and buried between the legs. In the medieval period the site was didvided by several boundary ditches and it was probably in the early medieval period that domestic occupation first began nearby. One major boundary ditch was found running NW-SE; it had been dug and re-cut in the 14th and 15th centuries, and later replaced by a wall which was robbed in post-medieval times. Other features included post-holes and two walls, all difficult to date, as turning of the soil in Victorian and more recent times had destroyed most of the stratification. Trench 1 contained 13 inhumations with no regular alignment. Two contained grave goods; a bronze bracelet from burial 12 and a bronze finger ring from burial 4. Seven graves contained coffin nails and five contained hobnails. One cremation was inserted into a BBW type 2 jar (late 2nd-early 3rd century) whilst a second was recovered from below the same beaker. Two parallel ditches, aligned NE-SW and set 5m apart, terminated in the northern part, but continued beyond the southern limits of the trench, the western one was seen continuing into Trench 2. These ditches cut the graves but only contained residual Roman pottery sherds. They measured 0.9-1.4m wide and 0.7-0.8m deep. The trench also contained the remains of three walls, one containg 13th-16th century pottery in the foundation cut, and another lying stratigraphically above the ditches and graves. A large number of pits and possible post/stake holes were recorded, a few contained post-medieval pottery, others were stratigraphically later than the burials, but no discernable structures were recognised.