Monument record MDO18272 - Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester; Post-Roman timber structures

A number of postholes, which may be the remains of one or more structures, were found cutting through the remains of the Late Roman building, Structure 4 in Trench 6, during the 1990 excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester. It is difficult to determine precisely the number and form of the potential structures, but at least one rectangular post-built structure is suggested. No contemporary surfaces or artefacts were associated with the features. On stratigraphic grounds they must be very late Roman or post-Roman in date.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1990 in the proposed Wessex Court retail development area between Charles Street, Acland Road, and South Walks, Dorchester (1) (2) (3). The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the report and archive (1) (3).

A group of eleven postholes, all of which cut through the remains of the Late Roman building, Structure 4, were found in the centre of the trench, within an area of about 8m by 7m, with a further alignment of three postholes further to the south. There was another sparse scatter of five postholes in the southeast corner of the trench.

The main group of postholes were between 0.3-0.5m in diameter and between 0.13-0.19m deep and filled with flint packing and soil. Three of the postholes were irregular in shape and may have been recut. A number of rough alignments of postholes suggesting the existence of wall lines of at least one possible timber building can be identified, but no convincing clear coherent plan for any one feature can be determined. The excavators suggested that the postholes represented parts of two separate rectangular structures (numbered 5 and 6) (1), but this may be stretching the evidence too far. In association with these postholes were two shallow pits or scoops [2206] 2260] which also cut through the remains of the late Roman building, Structure 4.

None of this activity was closely or securely dated. A small quantity of Roman pottery dating from the 3rd-5th centuries AD was recovered from some of the postholes, but this may all be residual. The best dating evidence is the stratigraphic evidence which clearly demonstrates that these features post-date the late Roman building, Structure 4, which appears to have remained in use into the late 4th or early 5th century AD. Therefore, these structures are either very late Roman, or post-Roman in date.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 1431041 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Adam, N J, and Butterworth, C A, 1993, Excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester, Dorset, 1990. Volume 1: Text & Appendix I (Unpublished document). SDO191.

<2> Adam, N J, 1990, 'Excavations at Charles Street (Wessex Court), Dorchester, Interim Note on Stage 3, October-December 1990' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 115-7 (Article in serial). SDO9415.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 1989-1990, Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO9878.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:28PM