EDO4789 - Middle Farm, Bridport Road, Poundbury, Dorchester; evaluation 1990

Wessex Archaeology conducted an archaeological evaluation during February 1990 on a field east of Middle Farm, Dorchester, in advance of housing development. Fifteen machine trenches, covering some 2280 square metres, (1.9% of the development area) were excavated. Four trenches contained no visible features (Trenches E, J, K, M); two trenches only natural tree holes (Trenches A & P). The remaining 11 trenches contained archaeological features. These included nine ditch segments, one small pit, three ?marl pits, one articulated cow burial and three modern post-holes. Five ditch sections (Trenches H, I, L & N) contained Middle Bronze Age pottery and worked flint, in addition to earlier Bronze Age flint tools and flakes. One ditch (in Trench F) contained Late Bronze Age pottery. The features without datable artefacts are likely to be contemporary with these dated features. The exceptions are the possible marl pits, which are pre-medieval, but cannot be more closely dated. Though the majority of the features are ditches or boundaries, indicating fields or enclosures, some smaller settlement features also survive, which might indicate buildings. Because of the nature of the bedrock (generally clay-with-flints) and the type of filling (clay), features are not easily identified. The evaluation produced important new evidence for the origin and dating of field systems in the Dorchester area, and that contemporary, enclosed Middle Bronze Age settlement sites may exist in two areas of the developement area, in the north east (Trench F) and south of the field (Trench N). On the basis of the results of the evaluation, subsequent excavation was undertaken on this site (2).