EDO4007 - Land South-west of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester; evaluation (Trench 60)

Wessex Archaeology undertook an archaeological trial trench evaluation on an area of land to the southwest of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester, Dorset, which formed part of the proposed Phase II Poundbury development. The archaeological evaluation, consisting of 65 machine-excavated trial trenches (1.76% of the site), was undertaken during two periods in February and April 2001. The trenches were located in order to investigate cropmarks, as well as providing a good general coverage of the evaluation area. A few later trenches were positioned to investigate further salient archaeological features. All trenches were excavated by machine to the top of the archaeology or natural deposits and measured approximately 30m x 1.8m. Trench 60 was aligned NE-SW, W of Poundbury Farm. Natural clay-with-flints subsoil was encountered at a depth of 0.65m. A subcircular feature (1.2m long, 1.15m wide, 0.38m deep) may be a post pit, although there was no evidence of packing. A N-S aligned gully (0.75m wide, 0.16m deep) may be part of a field system that is possibly later than, and on the same alignment as, the Middle-Late Bronze Age ditched field system in this area. A further irregular feature may be a tree throw.