Monument record MDO19007 - Twenty Acre Field, Syward Road, Dorchester; human remains

Part of a human skull was reported as having been found in 1952 in Twenty Acre Field, shortly to be developed for housing, and now the Came View estate. This could indicate the site of a burial, possibly of prehistoric or Romano-British date.

Farrar, R A H, 1951, A Discovery in Twenty Acre Field, Syward Road, Dorchester. (Article in serial). SDO9751.

‘A discovery in Twenty Acre Field, Syward Road, Dorchester.
Part of a human skull is reported to have been found during the summer at about nat. grid ref. SY(30)/70618996 in Twenty Acre Field on the E. side of Syward Road, a site scheduled for development [Footnote: Information kindly supplied by Mr. A. C. Melhuish, Borough Surveyor’s Department]. No other indications of a burial were found, and the trench across the field did not reveal any sign of pits or ditches in the natural chalk, which rises to within about a foot of the surface. The proximity of Conquer Barrow and the Mount Pleasant enclosure [Footnote: Probably a Bronze Age ‘henge’ monument (Piggott, Antiquity, XIII, p. 158)] to the E., and of the Max Gate Roman burial place to the W., provide equally feasible contexts for human remains in this area.
During a subsequent examination the writer has found a scatter of Romano-British sherds and earthenware tile fragments in the replaced modern trench spoil, with a few abraded fragments, some of them possibly pre-Roman and some probably medieval (D.C.M. 1952.20). These finds may be of no significance, as the field was formerly allotment gardens, which may have been improved by dressings of soil from the town; but the area might well repay observation during its development.’

Farrar, R A H, 1951, The Roman Town Wall, Albert Road, Dorchester. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9752.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 578, no. 218e (Monograph). SDO150.

Record last edited

Jan 15 2015 3:18PM