EDO4562 - Parsons Store Site, Durngate Street, Dorchester; observations and recording 1981

Christopher Sparey Green observed the development of the Parsons Store site, Durngate Street during July and August 1981. The previous building, originally a non-conformist chapel, had been demolished and up to 2m of archaeological deposits survived over a 10m x 27m plot. Three major features could be identified. Firstly, at the north end, a well preserved E-W aligned metalled road crossed the site. This continued the line of a major street of the Roman town grid, previously recorded to the west in South Street and Church Street. The metalling was approximately 5m wide and 0.75m thick comprising a cambered gravel surface with flint foundation. Traces of two remetallings survived. The second features consisted of a building represented by two parallel robbed foundations aligned E-W and 13m apart on the east side of the site, south of the road. Traces of chalk floors survived to the noth of the foundations, presumably within the structure, containing 2nd century material. Two large ovens and deposits of ash were identified to the south of the building. West of this, on the Durngate Street frontage, a 2m wide steined well shaft had been backfilled in the Roman period. The third feature comprised a large disturbance in the centre of the site at least 3m deep that may represent a main drain dating from the 1st century AD, parallel to the road and running under the later building. No trace of post-roman activity was identified; black soil sealed all Roman levels.