SDO11560 - Letter from S. Wallis (DCC) to Phil Evans (AC Archaeology) 08/06/2009

I sent the e-mail below to Geoff Temlett following Friday's meeting and received an automated response that he's on leave until next Monday. Hence, I thought it a good idea to forward it to you. Steve ----- Forwarded by Steven P Wallis/ENVIRONMENTALSERVICES/Dorset County Council on 08/06/2009 15:09 ----- Steven P Wallis/ENVIRONMEN TALSERVICES/Dorse To t County Council Geoffrey W Temlett/BMD/Dorset County Council@DCC 08/06/2009 15:00 cc Claire J Pinder/ENVIRONMENTALSERVICES/Dorset County Council@DCC, Solmaz Tavsanoglu/ENVIRONMENTALSERVICES/Do rset County Council@DCC, Christopher Stokes/ENVIRONMENTALSERVICES/Dorset County Council@DCC Subject BARTON HILL HOUSE, SHAFTESBURY Dear Geoff Claire, Solmaz and I had a useful site visit/meeting at the excavation at Barton Hill House on Friday with Phil Evans and Joe Whelan of AC Archaeology - all seems to be going well on the excavation. Phil Evans asked for my views on a couple of matters, and I thought it would be helpful if I passed these on to you, particularly as I'm on leave after this Wednesday until the end of the month. Firstly, Phil asked about the south-east corner of the development area, which is outside the area of excavation that we all agreed. In particular, he thought that archaeological monitoring of this location might yield useful information on the course of a Medieval ditch that runs across the area of excavation. I said that, if you are able to allow AC Archaeology to monitor the work here for that reason, all well and good, but I did not think that it should be insisted upon as a planning requirement. Secondly, there are a few very deep pits on the site that date from the Middle Ages. These features have been found on a number of sites in Shaftesbury and they are generally interpreted as wells, although Phil thought they might have been used in tanning leather. AC Archaeology have not excavated these fully, but only to the depth that Health and Safety regulations allow without the use of shoring. Since the depth reached seemed to be the likely depth of the foundations of the proposed building, we decided that there is to be no reason for deeper excavation of these pits to take place, unless for engineering reasons the softer fill of the pits will have to be dug out and replaced. If this is the case, it would be appropriate for AC Archaeology to carry out a 'watching brief' as this is done. Hope this is all in order. If there are any archaeological issues that arise while I am away, please contact my colleague Claire Pinder. Best wishes Steve "This e-mail is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may contain information about individuals or other sensitive information and should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this email in error, kindly disregard the content of the message and notify the sender immediately. Please be aware that all email may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation." Scanned by MailDefender - managed email security from intY - www.maildefender.net Scanned by MailDefender - managed email security from intY - www.maildefender.net