SWX4065 - Excavations at Christchurch, Dorset, 1981 to 1983; Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

Interim report on excavations conducted in Christchurch by Wessex Archaeology between 1981-3. Seven excavations (W5-10 incl., W37) were carried out during the summer of 1981 and the autumn of 1982 in advance of redevelopment in the nort part of the late Saxon burh and medieval town. parts of the defences and areas fronting both the High Street and adjacent to the site of a known late 6th-7th century pagan Saxon cemetery were examined. Further dating and structural evidence for the nature of the of the late Saxon and medieval defences was found, as well as evidence for the nature of medieval occupation in that area and extramurally. In 1983 two sections (W42 and W43) were excavated across a defensive ditch to the west of High Street, inside the line of the late Saxon burh defences. Finds suggest a medieval date for this ditch.