EDO6504 - Top o' Town House, Bridport Road, Dorchester; evaluation 2018

Evaluation of the proposed site of a mews-style dwelling to the rear of Top o' Town House, comprising excavation by machine of a trial trench measuring 5m by 1.5m in the north-west corner of the site. The eventual depth of the trench was 0.95m with a small slot hand excavated to the natural chalk. The remains of a gravel road were found overlaying the natural chalk. This comprised a series of hard-packed sandy flint gravel layers with small flint cobbles between 30mm and 100mm across dipping towards the south. This was probably the southern edge of a road which may have run roughly WNW-ESE. A small quantity of abraded Romano-British pottery was found in a layer of silt which probably developed after the disuse of the road. A wall of chalk blocks running roughly WNW-ESE was also recorded; this was interpreted as the probable remains of a field boundary or garden wall in the grounds of Top o’Town House.