SDO16702 - Poole Railway Station and Goods Yard, Borough of Poole, Dorset. Archaeological Evaluation

‘Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by FPD Savills, on behalf of Bellwinch Homes Limited, to undertake an archaeological evaluation of land at Poole railway station and goods yard, Dorset (hereafter referred to as the Site). The assessment is required in respect of a planning application. The Site, which covers an area of c. 2.508 hectares centred on NGR 401310 190220, is allocated in the Borough of Poole Local Plan, First Alteration (adopted March 2004) for mixed-use development (Policies H1f and CA9a). The proposals include a new station building, residential development, hotel, retail units and parking. The evaluation comprised a single machine-excavated trial trench measuring 18m x 2.10m and orientated approximately east-north-east/west-south-west across the southeastern corner of the Site. Made ground to a total depth of c. 1.25m was found within the whole of the trench area. Four distinct layers of made ground were identified, all relating to the raising of ground levels here prior to construction of the railway and associated infrastructure in the later part of the 19th century. The made ground lay directly over a basal deposit of alluvium that was at least 1.5m thick. Cutting into the surface of the alluvium, but sealed beneath the made ground, was a number of shallow archaeological features. The majority of these features were ditches that appeared to represent elements of a rectangular network. The ditches were likely to have been for drainage of the marshy alluvial ground that could then have been used for seasonal grazing. The very sparse evidence recovered during the evaluation suggests that these ditches date to the Medieval period. A small pit and a possible posthole in the terminus of one of the ditches indicated that other activities may also have been undertaken here, as does the presence of a small ditch on a different alignment to those that made up the rectangular pattern. The overall lack of artefacts indicates that the features located within the evaluation trench are some way from any settlement site. The absence of any former ground surface above the alluvium, and the shallow nature of the archaeological features here, indicate that the ground may have been stripped of topsoil and possibly of subsoils prior to the placing of the made ground.’