EDO4548 - Sewer Trench, Acland Road, Dorchester; observations and recording 1984

Chirstopher Sparey Green observed the digging of a pit for the eastward extension of an access hatch for a major sewer trench on the west side of the realigned Acland Road in June 1984. This pit was thought to lie on the projected west edge of a N-S aligned Roman road seen further to the north. The south-facing section revealed a 0.15m thick layer of yellow sand and gravel, which appears to be the remains of a metalled surface, at a depth of 1.5m. This lay above a 0.15m thick layer of chalk rubble, above a similar thickness of comminuted brick chips and gravel, above further gravel layers extending to the base of the trench at a depth of 2.3m. This stratigraphic sequence was cut by the sewer trench. The layers were interpreted as part of the N-S Roman road and were slightly higher on the east side of the trench, possibly indicating the camber of the road.