EDO5402 - Grounds of St Edward's Hotel, Salisbury Street, Shaftesbury; excavation

The Shaftesbury and District Archaeological Group carried out a small excavation in an area at the rear of the St Edward's Hotel previously cleared and levelled for cultivation. Two sections were dug to a depth of eighteen inches. No archaeological features were observed, but five pieces of post-medieval/modern pottery were found at a depth of around 10in on a layer of sandstone. According to the excavators, the soil beneath the sandstone layer was completely free of foreign matter, implying that it is the natural subsoil. The SDAG report notes that a seventeenth-century map shows the garden as part of a parcel of land called 'Matthew Mead'.