Monument record MDO18242 - Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester; Early Roman structure 1605

The remains of a probable early Roman post-built rectangular building was found in Trench 4, during the 1989 excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester. This building lay on the frontage on the north side of the Roman road 1008 and succeeded earlier Roman building 1604. It comprised a series of postholes and stakeholes, suggesting a rectangular building at least 9.5m by 8m across. It had a chalk floor and a hearth surrounded by postholes and stakeholes. The occupation deposits in this building contained a large quantity of 2nd century AD pottery.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1989 in the proposed Wessex Court retail development area between Charles Street, Acland Road, and South Walks, Dorchester (1) (2) (3) (4). The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the report and archive (1) (4). This structure was found in Trench 4, on the northern side of Roman Road [1008] and was aligned on it. It overlay the remains of Structure 1604, but was separated from the earlier structure by a series of consolidation deposits of clay soil, chalk and flint. These layers contained a large quantity of mid-late 1st century AD pottery, together with some early 2nd century material. These consolidation layers were covered by a chalk surface 0.15m thick which also contained late 1st-early 2nd century AD pottery. The postholes and other features of Structure 1605 were cut through this chalk surface. Structure 1605 comprised ten postholes, six groups of stakeholes, a gully [1338] and a hearth [1272]. A line of eight postholes [1303, 1300, 1269, 1381, 1382, 1370, 1372, 1374] and three stakeholes [1336, 1334, 1384] formed a line running NW-SE, just askew from the posthole line of the earlier Structure 1604. The postholes were about 0.25m in diameter and a number had evidence for post-packing and one had a limestone post-pad. The posthole line was traced for 9.5m, suggesting the building was at least 9.5m long by over 8m wide (given that no other wall line was found within the excavation area). To the west of the posthole line (presumably within the interior of the structure) was a small shallow curvilinear gully [1338], which was cut by the hearth [1272]. This hearth consisted of three limestone-packed postholes to the north of a patch of burnt chalk flooring and one posthole to the south. Two groups of stakeholes were associated with Structure 1605; a group of three stakeholes just to the north of gully [1338] in the interior; and a group of seven stakeholes just northeast of the line of postholes. The chalk surface was covered by a series of occupation deposits containing a very large quantity of pottery dating to the 2nd century AD. This pottery was concentrated on the western side of the structure. These occupation deposits were sealed by a silting layer (also containing 2nd century pottery), which has been interpreted as an abandonment horizon sealing this building.

Record last edited

Dec 6 2023 12:34PM