Monument record MDO6028 - Roman Road, Stour floodplain, Sturminster Marshall (Part of Roman Road V: Badbury Rings to Dorchester)

Part of the Roman road from Badbury Rings to Dorchester where it crosses the River Stour at Shapwick and survives as a slight earthwork. A layer of flint nodules forming part of the base of this road was recorded during the evaluation of the route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme in 2012. The Roman road is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

This monument refers only to the section of the Badbury Rings to Dorchester Roman road where it survives as a slight agger as it crosses the floodplain of the river Stour. A geophysical survey of the proposed route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme crossed the line of the road in an apparent gap in the earthwork. It identified two linear anomalies on the line of the earthwork and which may be associated with the Roman road. [3] An evaluation trench was cut across the line of the road in the apparent gap in the earthwork as part of the evaluation of the proposed route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme in 2012. This revealed a dense spread of sub-angular and rounded flint nodules about 7.9m wide, which is probably the base course of the Roman road agger. No signs of any associated roadside ditches were identified in the trench. [4] The Roman road is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery [6-7] and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project.

Record last edited

Jul 7 2023 2:03PM