EDO4567 - Gas pipe trench, Acland Road to Charles Street, Dorchester; observations and recording 1979

A continuous pipe trench was dug along Acland Road, from Durngate Street in the north and round into Charles Street to the south. The trench was partially observed by C. J. Sparey Green during 1979. For most of its length along Acland Road the trench was dug through disturbed deposits. Further south, not far to the north of the junction with Charles Street, there was intact archaeological stratigraphy surviving. Along Charles Street and round into the southern part of its course on Acland Road, only recent deposits were encountered in the trench. The observations revealed two main deposits of gravel and sand metalling about 0.8m thick at a depth of about 0.4m below the surface, which were traced for a distance of about 14m. This lay about 2.5m west of Lings building, where Roman road gravels were also observed in 1978. The gravels appear to be from a Roman street oriented roughly N-S.