EDO4206 - near the Pound, Fordington; antiquarian observation 1747

"In May 1747, on digging chalk to make the above-mentioned road [the present London Road, Dorchester], near the pound, were discovered, at a depth of four or five feet, above 200 skeletons. They generally lay north and south, some inclined east and west. The skulls were remarkably thick, and many of the teeth very sound. By the side of one lay a sword-blade, 2.5 feet long; six inches seemed to have been broken, or eaten off by rust. They were re-interred in the churchyard, or in pits dug on the place" (1) (2). The location of the pound in Fordington is well-known, but the precise location of these graves is unclear. It may be to the west of the pound, as Hutchins (2) states that the 1839 burials found under High Street, Fordington lay "immediately between the excavations of 1747 and those of 1810". The 1810 discoveries were probably in Salisbury Field. This suggests that the burials found in 1747 were part of the same Roman cemetery as the discoveries of 1810 and 1839.