SWX8527 - No.2 Kimmeridge, Dorset. An Archaeological Evaluation.

Bournemouth University's School of Conservation Sciences was commissioned to carry out an archaeological evaluation in connection with a proposal for the construction of two cottages on land adjacent to No 2 Kimmeridge. The site is in the centre of the historic core of the village, and thought to be largely undisturbed. Three small test-pits were dug, and each revealed dark soil interpreted as horticultural or plough soil, over natural Kimmeridge Clay. A limited number of finds of seventeenth-century and later date, such as clay pipe stems and fragments of pottery, were found in the topsoil. These finds were thought to be consistent with the street-front buildings south of the church, which range from seventeenth to nineteenth century in date. The author concluded that there was no evidence for earlier occupation on the development site, but remarked on the presence in the field immediately to the east of post-medieval enclosure boundaries overlying earlier earthworks of a probable field system. He noted that there was tentative evidence that this system continued onto the development site where it terminated as a lynchet.