EDO4984 - Poundbury Caravan Park, Poundbury Road, Dorchester; observations and recording 1965

Observations were carried out in 1963 by Christopher Sparey Green during the construction of the caravan park on the southeast side of Poundbury Camp hillfort. The area was terraced disturbing the upper part of the hillfort defences and the aqueduct. Two service trenches were cut through the area at right angles to the hillfort ditches and aqueduct. In the northern section the top of the hillfort outer ditch, which was about 6m wide, was identified, with a narrower channel, identified as the Roman aqueduct, lying to the west. The southern section did not pick up the line of the outer hillfort ditch. However, at the western end of this southern section was a broad shallow ditch about 7.3m wide and apparently only 0.9m deep. This was on the line of the inner ditch of the hillfort defences and may indicate the defensive ditch was unfinished in this area. Alternatively, it is possible that the feature recorded may have just been the upper soil filling of a deeper ditch largely filled with chalk rubble which was misidentified as natural chalk, The aqueduct (which survived as a 2.4m wide and 0.9m deep feature with steep sides and flat base filled with brown loam) lay to the east of this ditch. The results of this watching brief have been included in the published monograph on the main excavations at Poundbury (1) and the site record included within the archive of these excavations (2).