EDO4825 - WDDC Leisure Centre extension, Thomas Hardye School, Coburg Road, Dorchester. Trench 2

WDDC commissioned Wessex Archaeology to carry out archaeological excavations during June 1995 in advance of the construction of extensions to existing buildings at WDDC Leisure Centre, Coburg Road, Dorchester. The area had already been the subject of extensive archaeological work during 1994. These excavations, in two separate trenches, revealed a small number of prehistoric pits and ditches beneath depths of made ground and shallow modern disturbances. Small quantities of pottery and worked flint were recovered, for analysis at a later date. Trench 2 was approximately rectangular in shape, aligned E-W and designed to cover the area of groundworks for an extension on the south side of the lesisure centre. The natural comprised upper chalk sloping gently to the south. A 'V' shaped ditch [121], running SSW-NNE across the centre of the trench was investigated in three sections comprsisng a 50% sample of the feature. It was 1m wide and 0.6m deep with small quantities of worked and burnt flint from all layers within its fill. The top fill also contained small sherds of prehistoric pottery. Immediately adjacent to the ditch on its eastern side was an amorphous pit containing small quantities of worked and burnt flint. These two features are thought to be Bronze Age in date, with the ditch forming part of an extensive field system identified in earlier excavations. They were sealed beneath a soil horizon of dark yellow-brown silty clay containing modern artefacts. A larger number of smaller features of modern date were distributed evenly across the trench [1].