Monument record MDO8113 - Wareham Town Walls

Saxon town walls oblong in shape containing an area of 100 acres and enclosed by a vallum 50ft high.

Watching brief during water-main works at the East Walls revealed the ditch of the Saxon rampart visible as a deep, dark humic fill. The rampart consisted of a yellow sandy soil with gravel, consistent with findings at the West Walls where the rampart is similar, having been constructed from material from the external ditch. Post medieval pottery and glass fragments were recovered (1) The walls form an oblong area containing 100 acres and enclosed by a vallum 50ft high in places, destroyed at its S and SE sections. The W bank is 1800ft long, the N bank 1960ft, the E bank 1600ft and the S bank 1700ft. The castle mound is located at the SW corner and there is a bowling green located at its NE corner. There are four entrances at the Cardinal points. (2) The monument includes parts of the E ramparts outside the E walls where the main walls have been shown by excavation to be Medieval, the outer ramparts may be the remains of Iron Age defences. This outer defence is approximately 30ft wide and does not exceed 2 ft in height. Hutchins wrote of ramparts outside the E and W walls. (3) Drew excavated a sewer trench at the NW corner and showed the ditch had silted to 12ft, so the ditch was 20ft deep from the original ground level. The Royal commission excavated four trenches through the W walls in 1952-4. They found late Iron Age and Roman material sealed by a rampart over 9ft high and 47 ft wide added to later with a 4ft thick layer of loam and a stone wall 7ft wide with a 15ft wide footpath behind it. The wall was then robbed out, the ditch dug to 18ft and some of this material was dumped on the rampart. (4)

Record last edited

Aug 19 2021 2:12PM