EDO541 - Stour Park, Blandford St Mary; excavation 2004

'Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Lord Cultural Resources Planning & Management on behalf of Hall & Woodhouse Brewery to carry out a programme of archaeological work at Stour Park, Blandford St Mary, Blandford Forum, Dorset (NGR 38875 10568). The programme involved the archaeological excavation of the footprint of a proposed Homebase store and evaluation trenches (in lieu of a watching brief) on the route of a sewer diversion. The standing Victorian School was subject to a programme of recording prior to, and during demolition. Previous work to the north-east of the Site, by AC Archaeology, identified Medieval and Saxon features, some of which were found within the Site confines. The programme of archaeological work carried out by Wessex Archaeology recovered a range of rolled and broken Bronze Age struck flint, located two Medieval ditches and recorded fragmentary elements of a 19th-century farm. The School overlay a slightly earlier building which may have originally had an agricultural use. It is not proposed to publish the results further- other than a note in the county archaeological journal, to lodge this report with the SMR and deposit the archive with the County Museum Service.' [1]