EDO4570 - Wollaston Field, Dorchester; excavation 1977 to 1978

In 1977-78 the then Central Excavation Unit (now English Heritage Centre for Archaeology) undertook rescue excavations in advance of the proposed development of a playing field to the south of Wollaston House, Dorchester. Initial trenching revealed a building complex which occupied a broad east-west zone across the centre of the field. Further hand clearance revealed part of the overall plan of a substantial building and confirmed that it was part of a large Roman bath house. The bath house had been heavily robbed over a considerable period of time, several walls being removed completely, the majority below their original ground level. The latest phase of robbing appears to date from the 18th century asscoiated with the development of the area to the south and east (1). No further major structures were found in 1978. On completion of the excavation the site was backfilled with the more delicate structures protected by a layer of sand. Subsequent geophysical survey demonstrated that the buildings extended to both the east and west of the main trench, allowing a fuller interpretation of the bath-house. It seems to have developed from two separate centres; an earlier one to the west of the main trench, and a later one to the NE. Of the western suite of rooms only a small part of the frigidarium was exposed in the main trench, to the west a trial trench crossed a large heated room (caldarium or tepidarium). This room had an apsidal plunge bath in the south wall. To the east of the frigidarium was a suite of rooms consisting of plunge bath, laconicum and two small heated rooms. Only a very small part of the later phase of rooms to the NE of the main trench was exposed. This comprised a second frigidarium and several heated rooms to the west and south. The remaining part of this phase remains unexcavated to the NE of the main trench. The bath house had undergone several periods of alteration. It probably had a palaestra to the north. The road described R.A.H. Farrar (PDNHAS, 70, 61-2) was exposed for a length of 15m in the SE of the site. It was aligned ENE-WSW, with a conduit to the north. The ditch was 3m deep with a tile conduit at the base. The ditch probably went out of use in the 2nd century AD (2).