EDO6472 - Dorset VIP, Winterbourne Abbas, Winterbourne Steepleton, Winterborne St Martin and Portesham ; evaluation 2017

An archaeological evaluation was commissioned by the National Grid in advance of the Dorset Visual Impact Provision, a project which aimed to relocate electrical services underground. The evaluation was the first of a programme of works to mitigate the archaeological potential along the proposed corridor of works and comprised fourteen trenches in the northern section of the proposed corridor. These were targeted according to a previous geophysical survey and excavated by machine with a toothless bucket to the natural geology or first archaeological horizon. Trench depth was between 0.5m and 1m. In the event three trenches were not excavated due to landowner access restrictions and one due to health and safety considerations. Archaeological features were present in all trenches except one which comprised topsoil overlying chalk bedrock. Trenches ran as folows: west to east 25, 20, 26, 29, each aligned differently, then turning south, 150 and 42 at right angles to each other, and 61, 75, 133 well spread out to the south end of the evaluation site. The features included a possible ring ditch and pit in Trench 20; a possible wall foundation cut in Trench 26; seven ditches in Trench 29, two of which contained a large assemblage of worked flint, probably Bronze Age, with some pottery sherds of possible early prehistoric date in the south-western end. Trench 42 contained three circular features and three possible ditches all of which contained some charcoal inclusions. Trench 47 revealed a possible enclosure with ditches and a large posthole. Trench 61 contained a circular feature, probably a pond, postholes and three ditches which may indicated a field system. A large flint blade was found in one of the postholes. Trench 75 contained three possible chalk extraction pits or sinkholes and were not excavated. Trench 133 contained a lynchet measuring 20.3m wide. Trench 150 was not excavated due to health and safety constraints but corresponded with an area of strong magnetic anomalies which suggested areas of burning, ditches and pits. Two round barrows were revealed, in Trenches 20 and 29, correlating with the worked flint and pottery. Overall there were few finds allowing dating however it was concluded that the northern end of the corridor may have been a funerary landscape subsequently used for flint working through to an agricultural usage at the southern end. The central section had an as yet undefined purpose.