EDO267 - Land between Wimborne Minster and Cornmarket, Wimborne Minster; excavations 1979

Excavations between Wimborne Minster and Cornmarket took place as time allowed during building operations and construction of a new churchyard wall. The work consisted of: trenches and test pits in the area adjacent to Cornmarket (CMT78); trial trenches in the area behind Cornmarket and the open area to the south west (WMR79); and observations during rebuilding of the churchyard wall (WPW80). Thirteenth-century pits and structures, followed by sixteenth-century stone buildings were recorded on the Cornmarket frontage, with open 'orchard' areas to the south west. There was some evidence for post structures beneath the thirteenth-century pits on the Cornmarket frontage and below the churchyard wall. The end of a ditch aligned east-west, with a spread bank on its southern side, was recorded between the George Hotel and the Minster; the excavators noted that the ditch was filled during the seventeenth century, and could not be taken as evidence of an early ecclesiastical circuit.