SDO9621 - Excavation of Neolithic and Bronze Age features at the Thomas Hardye (formerly Castlefield) School, Coburg Road, Dorchester, 1994. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

Report on a series of archaeological investigations carried out at two adjacent local authority properties, Thomas Hardye School and West Dorset District Leisure Centre in advance of development and improvement of facilities. One of the areas investigated, the Thomas Hardye School site, was subjected to two geophysical surveys in 1988 and 1993, trial trenching in 1994 followed by excavation in June and September of that year, after which the remarkable barrow cemetery was preserved in situ. Further small scale archaeological recording took place in 1995 when existing buildings were extended. This summary report of those interventions is intended as a substitute for full publication, for which funds were unavailable. Thirty-three pits were recorded, five of which were arranged in a semi-circle and may be of Neolithic date. The remainder has no spatial patterning and ranged in date from the Neolithic to Roman periods, although the majority were Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. Finds included sherds of grooved ware pottery, a greenstone axe, and various arrowheads. Eight barrows or ring ditches were recorded, five of which were arranged in a linear E-W aligned cemetery set along a natural break in the slope towards the southern end of the site. The two central barrow were linked by a pair of linear ditches forming a central rectangular chamber. Two of the barrows contained beaker burials. A series of linear ditches were recorded across the site, generally aligned E-W or N-S, with little dating evidence. One ditch however, was aligned NE-SW and was shown to be a continuation of a later Bronze Age ditch recorded at Coburg Road. Another ditch could be traced by geophysical survey to the south and a s a cropmark, suggesting that it represents part of a trackway linking a number of LIA/RB settlements to the town of Durnovaria. Further shallow ditches were linked by alignment to the common fields of Fordington Manor.