SDO9887 - Dorchester Excavations 1974. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society.

Excavations took place between Trinity Street and Cornhill/South Street behind 54 & 55 South Street and 11 Cornhill in September 1974. the area was the site of a demolished store building for a business in South Street. Three trenches were opened, a total area of 25 sq. m. recent disturbance had cut into the chalk in half of this area. Trench 1 was placed in the NE of the site, adjacent to the position of a ditch observed previously in the plot to the north. However, at this point there was a step in the modern ground surface and 19th century deposits lay directly on natural chalk. Trenches 2 and 3 both retained areas of ancient ground surface; a natural brown clay above the chalk. This clay was covered by the remains of a chalk spread, 0.15m thick and packed into the top of the natural clay. The top of this spread had been truncated and lay directly below 19th century black soil. No finds were stratified within the chalk spread although a similar spread recorded 10m to the north of the site was dated to the 1st half of the 1st century AD and formed the make-up for a Roman road. It is not clear if the 1974 spread is the make up for a road or a more extensive surface.