SDO17314 - Corn Exchange, North Square, Dorchester: Building Recording of Cellars beneath Car Park

Terrain Archaeology undertook building recording of cellars beneath the car park to the rear of the Corn Exchange, North Square, Dorchester. The cellars run along the North Square frontage, but only two cells are accessible - a third cell to the south had been filled with concrete. They are probably eighteenth century in date. The cellars are constructed in brick and stone with brick barrel vaults over. There is a blocked window in the north cell and possibly another in the next cell to the south, but this has been destroyed by later repair. A series of cement-lined brick vats were built within the cellars, possibly in the later nineteenth century, and these may have been used for curing hams and bacon. It is possible that the cellars continued to be used after the demolition of the original eighteenth century building and the construction of the Market House in 1848.