Monument record MDO18614 - Colliton Park, Dorchester; Roman Building V

The fragmentary remains of an aisled barn and associated walled courtyard to the south were exposed in the E part of Colliton Park during excavations in 1937 and 1938. Building V lay on the eastern side of the N-S Roman street, but was only approximately aligned to this street. It was extremely poorly preserved and much of the wall lines had disappeared and no floor levels survived. The most certain remains consisted of parallel E-W walls with two rows of three stone bases between, forming an aisled barn structure. The surviving walls were of flint with limestone quoins. The stone bases were of Ham Hill stone. To the south of the aisled barn was an angle of walling on the same alignment, which may be part of a walled yard attached to this building, which overlay an earlier metalling of the street and also overlay a pit containing 4th century pottery.

(Centred at SY 69009090) Six Roman buildings found in Colliton Park, by Lt. Col Drew and Mr. Collingwood Selby prior to the erection of a new County Hall. Building 5, may have been a large aisled barn with internal wooden support.

The fragmentary remains of a Roman building were exposed in the E part of Colliton Park during excavations in 1937 and 1938. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the excavations were never completed or written up. The following account is based on the interim report <3> and the Royal Commission Inventory entry <5>.

This building lay on the eastern side of the N-S Roman street, but was only approximately aligned to this street. It was extremely poorly preserved and much of the wall lines had disappeared and no floor levels survived. The most certain remains consisted of parallel E-W walls with two rows of three stone bases between, forming an aisled barn structure. The surviving walls were of flint with limestone quoins. The stone bases were of Ham Hill stone.

This building was constructed over a pit (Pit W) containing 1st century pottery and an iron tyre from a wheel and two hub bands.

To the south of the aisled barn was an angle of walling on the same alignment, which may be part of a walled yard attached to this building. It overlay an earlier metalling of the street and also overlay a pit containing 4th century pottery <3>.

Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 01-SEP-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1939, Journal of Roman Studies, 219 (Serial). SDO20471.

Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 10-OCT-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<1> Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1932, Journal of Roman Studies 22, 45 (Serial). SWX3247.

<2> Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1997, Britannia: a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies 28, 193-4, 206 (Serial). SDO19421.

<3> Drew, C D, and Collingwood Selby, K C, 1938, 'The Excavations at Colliton Park, Dorchester: Second Interim report; Excavations carried out in the season of 1938' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 59 (Article in serial). SDO9765.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1937-1938, Colliton Park, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10066.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 560 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘Monuments (182–187), in Colliton Park, now occupied by the County Council offices, were excavated in 1937–9 by C. D. Drew and K. C. C. Selby. Interim reports appeared in Dorset Procs. LIX (1937), 1–14, and LX (1938), 51–65. Where the following accounts differ from these reports they are based on unpublished finds and site notebooks in D.C.M., and on a re-examination of the visible remains including the re-exposure in 1959 of the floors of rooms 14 and 18 of Monument (182). For the street and water conduit also excavated by Drew and Selby, see Monuments (180) and (227b). (187) BUILDING N.E. of (186), fronting on the E. side of the street (180) with which it was approximately aligned, was also poorly preserved (69029089; Building V in interim report, Drew and Selby, op. cit. (1938); Fig. p. 554).
The most certain remains consisted of nearly parallel E.-W. walls of an aisled building some 45 ft. wide and over 65 ft. long, with two rows of three bases for wooden posts between them. The bases, of Ham Hill stone about 2 ft. square and 1 ft. high, formed bays averaging 20 ft. wide, and the building was probably a warehouse or barn. A pit with late 1st-century pottery, an iron wheel-tyre and hub bands, underlay the S. wall. An angle of walling on the same alignment, although associated with some loose tesserae, probably indicates a yard attached to the building on the S.; it overlay an earlier metalling of the street (180) and a pit to the E. containing 4th-century pottery.’

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453300 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:30PM