Monument record MDO19381 - Possible Civil War fortlet found at Dorchester Prison

A possible Civil War fortlet was found in the southeastern part of Dorchester Prison in 1858, during the investigations by the Prison Governor J V D Lawrance of the Roman mosaics and building remains found in the prison burial ground. The precise location of this fortlet is not known and no plan of it exists. The fort was described as having Vauban-like fortifications with ravelins, bastions and escarpments. It enclosed two pits, one possibly a well. A Charles II sixpence was found in the well, which may suggest that the fort wasn't destroyed until the later seventeenth century, or that the well continued in use until that date.

A possible Civil War fortlet was found in the southeastern part of Dorchester Prison in 1858. It was revealed during the investigations by the Prison Governor J V D Lawrance of the Roman mosaics and building remains found in the prison burial ground. The precise location of this fortlet is not known, but the general area is clear as it was found in the eastern part of the prison enclosure, when the new wall was being built to enclose that area. No plan of the fortlet exists and the only description is in a newspaper article introducing Lawrance's description of his discovery of the Roman mosaics, etc. This description is reproduced in full : "in a spot […] attempts had evidently been made at well-digging in the chalk; one 8 feet in depth, and another 30 feet, probably during some siege in the Royalist wars – a sixpence of Charles II was discovered at the latter depth, and eventually the trench lay bare the zig-zag curvatures of ravelins, bastions, and escarpments, forming the traces of a perfectly Vauban-like system of fortifications with outworks 30 feet apart. " <1>. This suggests that the defences of the fortlet enclosed two pits, one of which may have been a well. The Charles II sixpence found in the bottom of the well may suggest that the fort wasn't destroyed until the later seventeenth century, or that the well continued in use until that date. <2> A curved ditch, probably part of a small Civil War fortification, was excavated by Prison Governor Lawrence in 1975 within the east wall of the prison. It was probably backfilled in the 18th century. <3>

Record last edited

Apr 2 2023 8:54AM