Monument record MDO18105 - Old Methodist Chapel post-medieval building 161

Found during the 1982 excavations at the Old Methodist Chapel, Dorchester. This building was originally an L-shaped building on the corner of South Street and Durngate Street. All that survived was the cellar, which was essentially a rebuilding of the earlier medieval cellar, reusing the same stairs. Eventually the stairs were blocked, suggesting the access was changed. This building was demolished to make way for the construction of the Methodist Chapel in 1875.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1982 after the demolition of the South Street Methodist Chapel on the corner of South Street and Durngate Street, Dorchester. (1) The results of the excavation were published together with the results of the adjacent Greyhound Yard excavations. (2) The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the published report (2). Building 161 lay on the corner of South Street and Durngate Street. This area had been severely truncated during the construction of the Methodist Chapel on the site in 1875. All that survived of Building 161 was part of the cellar. This cellar was largely a rebuilding of the medieval cellar [282]. The south side of the earlier cellar was demolished and two new parallel mortared stone walls were constructed across the southern part of the cellar. It still appears to have been entered by the original stairway for the earlier cellar, but this was later blocked by a stone wall. This building is clearly identifiable on Hutchins' map of 1772 as an L-shaped building on the corner of South Street and Durngate Street. (3) A narrow passage along its east side separated it from the block of buildings further east along Durngate Street. A roughly squared well was found behind this building and this is shown on the Public Health Act Survey of 1856. (*) Very little survived of the buildings to the east on Durngate Street, other than a single circular hearth of glazed earthernware tiles.

Record last edited

May 2 2012 3:55AM