EDO6308 - Stratton House Campus, High West Street, Dorchester; evaluation 2011

An archaeological evaluation consisting of the machine excavation of five trenches. Trench 1 measured 1m by 2m and was oriented east-west and situated in the car park on the west side of Glyde Path Road. Below the tarmac was a layer of broken/redeposited tarmac over a levelling deposit of sand and gravel, set on the natural chalk. The eastern side of the trench was cut by a telecommunications trench. Trench 2 measured 1.1m by 10m and was oriented south west-north east and was the northernmost of two trenches situated in the car park north of Shire Hall. Below the concrete/tarmac was a layer around 1m thick of undifferentiated dark brown soils, likely to have formed from Roman and medieval deposits, above natural chalk. Concrete and a modern wall prevented full excavation of the south west end of the trench. The central part of the trench was crossed by the stone footings of a wall thought to be of 19th-century date. Trench 3 measured 1m by 5m and was oriented north-south, and was also in the car park behind Shire Hall. The upper concrete/tarmac and make up layer sealed a much reworked deposit of poorly differentiated brown soils which appeared to have formed in the medieval and post-medieval periods and included the fills of robber trenches as wall as general urban build up. A number of Roman artefacts were recovered from this layer. A robber trench in the middle of the trench cut a chalk-rich deposit sealing a buried soil of pale brown silt over compacted chalk and the mortar setting for a tessellated floor or pavement. The compacted chalk layer sealed another buried soil of red silty clay, over a further layer of compacted chalk. This was thought to be either a natural surface or the base for an earlier floor. Trench 4 measured 1.2m by 10m and was oriented north west to south east and situated in the part of the car park which had formerly been a school playground. Below the tarmac was a layer of hogging over brick paving set on mixed dark brown soils, mainly deposited during the 19th and 20th centuries, over natural chalk. These brown soils were interpreted as being in part garden soils as well as levelling and recutting of old deposits, some of which were likely to be Roman or medieval. A modern brick wall and drainage pipe, probably for a toilet, and an earlier brick and stone wall, were discovered in the middle of the trench. Trench 5 measured 1m by 10m and was oriented north west to south east and situated in the car park north of Trinity Cottages. Below the concrete/tarmac was a layer of hogging, above a rubbly deposit and the dark brown soils seen elsewhere on the site. This deposit sealed two features which could not be excavated further owing to the depth of the trench. One was a linear cut running east-west and with a filling of mid grey brown loam with occasional fragments of chalk and flint and a large piece of Roman tile visible. Another linear feature, parallel with the first, may be associated with it. The filling of this feature contained more chalk and flint fragments and a Samian sherd in fresh condition.