EDO4831 - Poundbury Development Offsite Planting, Dorchester, east of A35/north of Maiden Castle Road; evaluation

Wessex Archaeology carried out an evaluation of areas proposed for tree planting on land to the south west of Dorchester, during January and February 1991. Three areas were assessed, each with a single machine trench: west of Bush Cottage, Maiden Castle Road; East of Maiden Castle car park; and east of the A35 by-pass and north of Maiden Castle Road. A 50m x 2m trench, aligned approximately NW-SE, was excavated some 15m north of the Maiden Castle Road fence line in the angle formed by Maiden Castle Road and the A35 bypass. At the northern end of the trench, below 0.3m of topsoil, two shallow E-W aligned ditches, probably of Roman date, were revealed. The northern ditch measured 1.4m wide and 0.2m deep, it had possibly been recut and contained 3 pieces of worked flint an oyster shell and a fragment of iron in its fill. The second ditch was 0.9m wide, 0.1m deep and contained 2 pieces of worked flint and a sherd of Roman pottery. These features are part of an extensive cropmark complex which lies mainly to the west of the site, it is a scheduled ancient monument and was partially excavated during construction of the bypass.