EDO4529 - Middle Farm, Bridport Road, Dorchester; fieldwalking 1989

Systematic fieldwalking of a 12 hectare plot of land to the east of Middle Farm, Dorchester was undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in November 1989, as the first stage of archaeological evaluation of this area which was proposed for development (1) (2). All artefacts were collected on a 25m grid basis. A large number of worked flint and chert flakes and tools of earlier Neolithic to later Bronze Age date were recovered, in addition to a quantity of Roman pottery, post-medieval pottery, bone and metalwork of varying dates. A rapid assessment of the finds suggested that the bulk of the flint dated to the Bronze Age and their distribution suggested two main concentrations towards the the SW and NE of the site. The Roman pottery may indicate some settlement activity. The medieval and post-medieval pottery is probably the result of manuring of the fields (1). This site was subsequently the subject of trial trenching and excavation (3).