EDO4971 - Pound Lane (Site X2), Christchurch; excavation 1972

A rescue excavation was undertaken by the South Wessex Archaeological Association, to the west of the 1970-71 excavations at Pound Lane, Christchurch. A site to the rear of High Street was chosen in order to investigate the possibility of multiple defensive ditches for the late Saxon burh and medieval town. To this end a mechanical trench was opened, 2.0m wide at the NW end and 4.0m wide at the SE. The SW section was cleaned and recorded. The important features were the ditch sections; F1 measured 1.40m deep and 3.80m wide with a grey-brown fill and an upper layer of rubble cut into the clean gravel. F2, F3 and F4 were interrellated, all filled with dark loam. F2 was round bottomed, F3 was square bottomed and F4 had a rounded V-profile. The interrellation of these to the major ditch F6 was obscured by disturbance. F6 was 2.8m deep and 7m wide and full of dark loam. There were no datable finds from any of these ditches. These ditches may represent a series of re-cuts of a single ditch, although some may be part of a series of multiple and parallel ditches as seen at the Saxon burhs od Wareham and Lydford.