Monument record MDO18180 - Maiden Castle First School (Prince of Wales First School): Iron Age ditched trackway

The remains of a ditched trackway running roughly NE-SW across the site were found during the 1992 evaluation and 1993 excavation on the Maiden Castle Road School site. This was stratigraphically earlier than the Late Iron Age enclosure 1 found on the site. It appears to have been diverted to run around the southern side of the enclosure.

The 1992 archaeological evaluation and the 1993 excavations undertaken by AC archaeology on the Maiden Castle First School site (now the Prince of Wales First School), revealed part of a ditched trackway which in its original form pre-dated the Late Iron Age enclosure 1on the site. The precise dating of this feature is not known as no post-excavation work has been done on the finds.

The trackway was defined by a ditch [38/88/501], which ran across the site in a NE-SW direction on the southern side and a slighter ditch [502] on the northern side defining a trackway about 2.5 m wide. The southern ditch had evidence for a number of recuts. The northern ditch had a shallow profile and was not continuous across the site and had probably been eroded away.

After the construction of Enclosure 1 during the Late Iron Age, the trackway appears to have been diverted to skirt the southern side of the enclosure. A short length of ditch [504] with a butt end to the west cut across the line of the trackway and terminated at the SW corner of Enclosure 1, perhaps to divert traffic south of the enclosure. A ditch [531] lay just outside the south entrance of the enclosure and may have been part of the re-routed trackway.

The route may have been finally formalised to run slightly further south of the enclosure, perhaps after enclosure went out of use, as is evidenced by two similar parallel ditches [532/58, 533/49/110], with another shallow parallel ditch [534/62] to the south. No dating evidence is available, but this trackway may have continued in use into the Roman period. It can be traced as a cropmark further to the NE and W.

Graham, A and Richards, J, 1992, Archaeological Evaluation of the Maiden Castle Road First School Site (Unpublished document). SDO9664.

Graham, A and Richards, J, 1992, Evaluation and Maiden Castle School, Dorchester, 233-234 (Article in serial). SDO9665.

AC Archaeology, 1992, Maiden Castle Road First School (Excavation archive). SDO9666.

Bellamy, P S , Graham, A , and Richards, J, 1993, Dorchester First School, Interim Report on Archaeological Excavations on the Site of the Maiden Castle Road First School, Dorchester, Dorset., 152 (Article in serial). SDO9480.

Graham A H, 1993, Summary Report on Archaeological Excavations on the site of the Maiden Castle Road First School, Dorchester, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO9479.

Record last edited

Jul 10 2006 9:58AM