SDO9704 - Notes on Roman Sites in Dorchester; Icen Way: Hardye's School Crafts Building

A substantial foundation and associated floors were cut through early in 1965 by a sewer trench dug to a depth of 6ft across the pavement outside the entrance to Hardye's School annexe in Icen Way, formerly a fymnasium. The foundation, trench built and strongly constructed of limestone and mortar, was at least 2ft wide, the east side evidently lying beneath the modern frontage; the west face ran on an almost due N-S alignment. The lowest courses were not seen. Large blocks of limestone in the overlying black soil suggest that a substantial wall existed. A mortar floor, 3.5 feet below the pavement, abutted on the wall foundation on the west, overlapping it by 2 ins. This floor was 6 ins thick and rested on 12 ins of flints and loam. At least two distinct layers lay beneath this floor, both abutting the foundation - a thin layer of yellow sandy loam laid on 7 ins of cobbles and gravel, and further down, at a depth of 6ft, a well made floor of concrete at least 1 in. thick; since the wall foundation was trench built, at least on this face, both these levels may represent earlier floors cut through when the wall was built. Natural chalk was not reached; the floors were cut by the main sewer 3ft from the kerb, so it is unknown how far they originally extended under the road. No objects were recovered from stratified levels.