EDO4839 - Dorset County Hospital Site, Dorchester (Stage 1) evaluation Trench A 1989

Wessex Archaeology conducted an archaeological evaluation on stage 1 (southern part) of the County Hospital Site during December 1989 in advance of planning permission being granted for redevelopment. Five small trenches were excavated, four (A-D) by hand, and one by machine (E). The results suggested that most of the area contains substantial Roman deposits under a late post-Medieval and modern overburden up to 1.5m thick. The roman remains include evidence for timber and stone buildings, at least some with mosaic or tessellated pavements, internal features like ovens, associated pits, wells, ditches and gullies. Features relating to the Roman defences include parts of the actual chalk ramparts and retaining wall. Trench A was aligned approximately N-S, 2m wide and 8m long. 18th century garden soils overlay a series of Roman and earlier post-medieval layers and features. The two principal Roman features lay in the southern half of the trench, both were wall footings from a stone building. One was aligned approximately NW-SE and consisted of large flint nodules packed tightly together, with compacted chalk filling in the gaps, set in a foundation trench cut 1.1m wide and 0.55m deep in to the bedrock. The other footing ran parallel some 1.2m to the south, was of similar construction but set in a narrow foundation trench. Both footings align with a building found in an earlier excavation and are presumably part of that structure. Inside the structure was a layer of flint demolition rubble, 0.15m thick. A similar layer to the south contained tile, plaster and mortar. The foundation trenches contained late Roman coarse pottery. A patchy artefact free layer up to 0.1m thick lay above the rubble and may be of Post-Roman date. A small 19th century pit and two possible post-holes cut through the Roman layers [1].