EDO192 - Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury, proposed car park extension: ground penetrating radar survey

Wessex Archaeology were commissioned by Salisbury Health Care to formulate a design for, and carry out, an archaeological evaluation of the site of the proposed car park extension for Westminster Memorial Hospital. The first stage of the evaluation consisted of an augur survey in late January 1995. The report interprets this, in combination with the results of a ground penetrating radar survey undertaken separately by Emrad Limited, to show a consistent depth of overburden over nature of 1.20 to 1.35 metres across the site, except along the Magdalen Lane frontage, where depths of up to 1.80 metres were present. The authors suggest that the apparent linear depression along the Magdalen Lane frontage represents either the former line or edge of the road, subsequently backfilled during later use as a garden, or a defensive ditch, perhaps relating to the Saxon burh.