Monument record MDO18005 - St George's Road structure 01462

A rectangular post-built structure within a rectangular enclosure system. It appears to have an open west side and may have been a barn or other agricultural building.

A post-built rectangular structure found during the excavations at St George's Road, undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in 1987 in advance of the Dorchester By-pass construction. The following description is abstracted from the final published report on the site (1). The numbers in square brackets refer to context numbers quoted in the report. Structure [01462] was a post-built rectangular structure within and aligned parallel to the ditches on the east side of the rectangular ditched enclosure. It consisted of 16 postholes along the north, south and east walls, with the long east wall being slightly bowed. There was no sign of a west wall. This structure measured 8.4m long by at least 3.2m wide. The postholes were shallow and between 0.25-0.6m in diameter. No internal or external surfaces associated with this structure survived. The absence of a west wall may suggest an open-sided building. No dating evidence was recovered. The location of this structure on the eastern side of the enclosure may argue that it was an agricultural building, perhaps a barn, within the enclosure. It was one of two post-built rectangular structures within the rectangular ditched enclosure. Its form is reminiscent of similar post-built structures found at Alington Avenue, Poundbury, and at County Hall, Dorchester which have been suggested as being post-Roman in date. This post-built structure was not dated but was aligned on the Late Roman rectangular enclosure system. A pin-beater of possible 7th century AD date was found in the enclosure ditch.

Record last edited

Dec 6 2023 1:29PM