EDO4535 - Dorchester Day Centre, Wollaston Field, Dorchester; observations and recording 1988

Wessex Archaeology conducted a watching brief during piling operations in February 1988 as part of the construction of the new Day Centre on Icen Way, Dorchester. This work followed on from the excavation of 4 trial pits (1) (2). 31 piles spaced 6m apart were bored to take the foundation of the new building. A limited amount of information on the nature of the below ground deposits was obtained by observation of this operation. It was not possible to assess the absolute depth and thickness of the layers, only the general sequence. Chalk bedrock was encountered at roughly the same depth over the whole site. No abnormally deep or shallow deposits were observed. No definite evidence of buildings was recovered, although one pile on the western side of the site noted a thin layer of limestone rubble and decayed mortar on top of a thin layer of chalk on top of reddish brown clay. These layers may represent the floor of a Roman building (2), perhaps the remains of a room at the eastern edge of the Roman bath house suite. Five piles in a broad band across the centre of the the site produced evidence for a fairly thin layer of weathered chalk rubble in a clayey matrix, immediately overlying the reddish-brown clay on top of the chalk bedrock. This chalk layer was originally interpreted as possibly belonging to a N-S Roman road, but it is more likely that it represents part of a yard surface or a path.