Monument record MDO18203 - Roman Road, South Walks, Dorchester

A small area of Roman road gravels were recorded in a watching brief by Terrain Archaeology in 2002, during sewerage works at the junction between South Street and South Walks, Dorchester. The precise orientation of the road was not determined, but the location of the gravels suggested it was part of the southern approach road from Weymouth and should lie very close to the position of the south gate of Durnovaria.

A small area of probable Roman road gravels was exposed during sewerage works at the junction between South Street and South Walks, Dorchester. They were recorded during a watching brief undertaken by Terrain Archaeology in January 2002 (1) (2). The surviving Roman road deposits were up to 0.4m thick and comprised three layers of compact coarse flint and gravel, capped by a surface of large nodular flints in rammed chalk. No dating evidence was recovered. The gravels overlay a small undated feature cut into the natural chalk. The orientation of this road was not determined in such a small exposure, but its position within the line of the Roman town defences of Dorchester, on the line of the south approach road from Weymouth and Radipole, suggests that it lies very close to the south gate of the Roman town (2). It is likely that a further exposure of these same road gravels were found during the original excavation of the manhole in 1990, when 1m of modern made ground overlying a deposit of flint gravel and clay loam 0.6m thick was recorded over natural chalk (3). The gravels were interpreted as natural (3), but it seems more likely that they formed part of the Roman road.

Record last edited

May 31 2016 2:37PM