EDO4644 - Mr H Barne's Field, Dorchester

In 1841, during the progress of digging a tank in a field occupied by Mr H Barnes near the SW angle of the town, an imperfect fragment of a Roman tesselated pavement was found [1][2]. It measured 14ft x 8ft but of the deisgn only part of the guilloche border with an outer border of spiral and circular patterns remained. A 'Zotheca' or alcove was divided from the main floor by a lozenge-patterned strip. The colours were blck, blue, red, light brown and white. An undated note on Whitehead's plan of Dorchester (1854) assigns a field or garden to Mr Barnes on the spot now occupied by Whetstone's Almshouses [1].