EDO573 - Land south of Tinneys Lane, Sherborne; evaluation trench 2

AC Archaeology conducted an archaeological evaluation during April 1996 in advance of proposed residential development South of Tinney’s Lane, Sherborne. The work comprised the machine excavation of four trenches between 20m and 21m long and 1.6m wide. The site was largely unaffected by modern disturbance and archaeological levels were generally discontinuous but well preserved. Evidence for extensive medieval quarrying was revealed in the northern part of the site, and a large ditch containing Roman pottery was also discovered. A human crouched burial of probable prehistoric date was found in the centre of the site and it may be contemporary with Bronze Age pottery found nearby. The SE part of the site had been severely truncated by post-medieval terracing and the SW part contained little of archaeological interest. Trench 2 was 20m long, aligned SW-NE, from the western edge of the site. 0.5m of topsoil overlay 0.1m subsoil. This overlay natural limestone and clay which was cut by two apparent archaeological features. [F203] was a poorly defined shallow gully aligned WSW-ENE and containing a single sherd of roman pottery. Just to the NE of this gully a roughly circular patch of limestone slabs indicated the position of a human burial. The skeleton [206], of a juvenie, was crouched on its right side with both arms flexed in front of the ribcage. The skeleton was cleaned but not excavated, no datable artefacts were recovered (1).