SDO11539 - An Archaeological Desk-based Assessment of Land Adjacent to Parsons Pool House, Parsons Pool, Shaftesbury, Dorset

This report presents the findings of an archaeological desk-based assessment (including site visit) of a potential development site adjacent to Parsons Pool House, No. 13 Parsons Pool, Shaftesbury, Dorset. The assessment was undertaken for Mr Philip Proctor. A range of sources was consulted for the assessment, including the County Sites and Monuments Record as well as documetary and cartographic material. The assessment has shown that the Site is located within an area of the town that has been devleoped from at least the late 13th century and possibly the 10th or 11th centuries. There is, however, no unequivocal evidence that any structures or other remains of this date are present within the Site. Early town maps illustrate substantial buildings on the Site during the 17th and 18th centuries, although there is no information to indicate their form or function. There was no substantial development of the Site in the 19th and 20th centuries and thus any archaeological remains will have escaped impacts generated by excavation for the foundations and cellars of more recent buildings. It is conculded that the Site is within an area of high archaeological potential and that there is good reaons to believe that archaeological remains may be present within the Site.