EDO4138 - Bowling Alley Walk Cable Trench, Dorchester; observations and recording 1989

Wessex Archaeology undertook a watching brief during the excavation of a cable trench along Bowling Alley Walk, by Mercury Communications Ltd, in March 1989. The trench ran along the bank on the south side of the walk, with an inspection pit at each end. The trench was 0.3 m wide and 0.5 m deep. The two inspection pit measured approximately 2m x 1m and were excavated to a maximum depth of 1.5m. The cable trench exposed post-medieval and modern soils and modern service trench fills. The western inspection pit revealed modern service trench fills overlying a layer of compact clean chalk, which may have been part of the Roman rampart. The eastern inspection pit revealed a sequence of silty loam and compacted chalk layers, dipping to the south at the base of the pit. No finds were recovered, but they probably represent the upper layers of the Roman rampart.