EDO3926 - Land to the West of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester; Evaluation Trench 3

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned to undertake an archaeological evaluation of land to the west of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester, in advance of the proposed Phase II Poundbury development. The site was known to contain three undated linear cropmarks and a postulated post-medieval chalk pit. Twenty-three machine-excavated trenches were investigated, each measuring at least 1.8m x 30m and totalling c. 1296 square metres. Trench 3 was 31.9m long and aligned N-S. It lay to the northN of Poundbury Farm. Clay-with-flint natural subsoil was encountered at a depth of 0.46m below ground level with natural Upper Chalk at 1.2m. A well defined 'V' profiled E-W aligned ditch with concave base was recorded, cutting the natural subsoil. It was 1.75m wide and 0.79m deep and 19 sherds of worked flint were recovered from its upper fill. It probably represents a late 2nd- or 1st millenium BC field boundary.