EDO4982 - Bere Regis Bus Company Garage, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester; observations and recording 1967

Observations were carried out by Christopher Sparey Green during the construction of the Bere Regis Bus Company Garage. A terrace about 26m by 33.5m was cut into the hillslope, just outside the northern side of the eastern entrance to Poundbury Camp hillfort. Part of the outer ditch and the north flanking ditch of the eastern entrance of the hillfort were exposed, together with a section of the Roman aqueduct. A Roman burial was also exposed on the northern side. The full section of the entrance flanking ditch was exposed and this was 3.35m deep and over 3.7m wide, with an asymmetric V-shaped profile, with a steeper side to the north. The fills comprised bands of soil and chalk rubble, which was consistently finer towards the north and coarser to the south. A cylindrical clay weight was found at the base of the ditch and some human and animal bone was found in the layers just above. Only the top of the outer hillfort ditch was exposed and a full section was not observed. It was about 7m wide and filled with layers of soil and chalk rubble. The eastern side of this ditch was cut by a Roman boundary ditch and the western edge was cut by the Roman aqueduct. A Roman extended inhumation [1292] of a juvenile with the head to the west was found in the upper part of the ditch. The aqueduct had a rounded base 1.8m wide and 1.4m deep and several sherds of 4th century Black Burnished Ware pottery were found in the base of the fill. The natural chalk beneath the channel was stained reddish-brown. The results of this watching brief have been included in the published monograph on the main excavations at Poundbury (1) (2) and the site record included within the archive of these excavations 3).