EDO4428 - Wollaston Field, Dorchester; excavation 1947 to 1952

R. A. H. Farrar undertook trial excavations in advance of the construction of a new school playing field in the grounds of Wollaston House between October 1947 and March 1952. Three separate seasons of excavation were undertaken in 1947-1948 (1), 1949 (2), and 1952 (3). The first season, between October 1947 and April 1948 comprised the excavation and recording of a World War II slit trench in the southeastern part of the site, north of Wollaston Road and east of Icen Way. A number of Roman features and deposits, which appeared to have a date range from the late 1st or early 2nd century to the 4th century AD. At the north end of the excavation trench the foundations of a single limestone wall 2 feet thick were found close to a small open clay-lined ditch or drain cut 3 feet into the natural chalk subsoil. Towards the southern end, the cemented gravels of a Roman road were exposed. Immediately north of the road was a large square cut conduit, apparently with a well cut into the base, t was unlikely to have been abandoned much later than AD 130 according to the pottery evidence (1). Excavations were resumed in late August 1949, with the aim of tracing the probable Roman Street (2). Three trenches were excavated to the east of the original trench and one to the south west. A straight alignment of 50 yards of the street was traced and sectioned in two places and its continuation between was confirmed through probing. It was aligned approximately SW-NE, not on the expected grid plan. It was 16 feet wide, cambered and comprised a surface of cemented flints and gravel above a foundation of heavy flints in sandy clay resting on natural chalk. It remained in use until the later 3rd century at least. At the east end of the site, the road had been destroyed by post-medieval activity. Two parallel 18th century wall foundations may have belonged to buildings fronting Icen Way and contemporary road metalling may be the remains of a road depicted on the Hutchins map (2). Excavation in the playing field of the junior department of the Gramar School was concluded early in 1952 (3), with the completion of a trench close to the backyards of the houses fronting on to Wollaston Road. This excavation revealed that the total road width was 16 feet and the construction comprised a base of flints in a sandy soil and four distinct layers of grouted flint metalling, with the three uppermost forming the central cambered section. The street was possibly flanked by a side ditch or gutter cut in the chalk subsoil along the northern side. A deep vertically sided pit or well preceded construction of the road on the south side with a small roadside gutter cut into the upper filling (3). This area was subsequently re-excavated as part of the Central Excavation Unit's excavations in 1977-78, which put the results of the earlier excavations into a larger context.