EDO4413 - County Police Barracks, Dorchester; salvage recording 1955

Workmen made the discovery of a skeleton during the digging of a manhole (SY60968998) in February 1955, beside the new dog kennels close to the south wall of the Police Barracks adjoining Maumbury Rings. The site was visited by Colonel Drew and later by R A H Farrar. The skeleton was examined by Professor A J E Cave of St Bartholemew's Hospital. (1) No grave goods were reported by the workmen but the skeleton of an adult male aged 40-50 years, lay at right angles to the wall extended in the supine position and aligned SSW (head)-NNE with arms crossed over the pelvis. The grave was cut into the natural chalk and two layers of coffin nails were present, one retaining traces of wood. The burial is though to be Roman because it lies within a known Roman cemetery. Further burials were found in 1955 0r 1960 near the SE corner of the precinct, three were aligned NNE-SSW and about 3.5ft below the surface. Two of these comprised two sets of foot bones with hobnails and coffin nails, some with adherent wood, found in a trench extending the line of the precinct wall. Few traces of the third survived mechanical excavation (2).