SWX8518 - Watching Brief Undertaken at East Walls, Wareham during water-main works

'A water-main trench was driven through ground which had been greatly disturbed in modern times. However, the undisturbed accumulated fill of the Saxon rampart ditch was visible as an underlying dark humic layer for much of the length of the trench. Where the pipeline trench was cut at right angles to the wall, this ditch was more apparent. North Bestwall Road itself is constructed on the eastern edge of the ditch fill. The rampart, constructed in the mid 9th century, consists of a bank of yellow sandy soil with gravels. It is substantially reduced in this area by a long-established trackway from Bells Orchard Lane to Swineham Point on Poole Harbour. Underneath the rampart was an amorphous spread of burnt flint charcoal with a small amount of Iron-Age pottery.'