EDO4203 - Thomas Hardye School, Queens Avenue, Dorchester; geophysical survey 1993

Oxford Archaeotechnics undertook Magnetic susceptibility field sensing on a 9.5 ha site on playing fields belonging to Thomas Hardye (then Castlefield) School and adjacent farmland and scrub to the west and northwest. A magnetometer (Gradiometer) survey was also undertaken on a 4 ha site within the playing fields to the south of the school. The site produced a considerable number of magnetic anomalies and a number can be positively identified as features visible from the air and at least one has been confirmed as having a later prehistoric origin by previous archaeological investigation. The gradiometer data demonstrates that the aerial photo evidence only partially represents former ancient alignments. A group of at least four substantial ring ditches, probably representing a barrow alignment on an east-west axis was located (and subsequent excavation proved this to be the case). The site is also crossed by a number of other linears, the majority of which are probably post-medieval agricultural marks.