EDO171 - Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury, proposed car park extension; auger survey

'In November 1994 Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Salisbury Health Care to formulate a design for, and to undertake, an archaeological evaluation of, the site of a proposed car park extension for the Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury, Dorset. The first stage of the evaluation, an auger survey, was undertaken in late January 1995. The results of this work, allied with those obtained by radar survey undertaken by Emrad Ltd, shows there to be a consistent 1.20m to 1.35m of overburden over natural across the site except along the Magdalene Lane frontage where up to 1.80m of overburden are present. It is postulated that the linear depression along the Magdalene Lane frontage represents either a former line or edge of the road which has been subsequently backfilled and levelled during the use of the garden, or the former line of a defensive ditch perhaps relating to the Saxon burh. It is proposed that the Stage 2 machine trenching investiages the linear depression, two of the radar features and more general areas of the site.' [1]