SWX8587 - An Archaeological Assessment of Southdown Farm, Preston, Weymouth, Dorset

An archaeological assessment was carried out for Southdown Farm, Preston, Weymouth. Examination of existing archaeological and historical data suggested that the Site lay at the western edge of a concentration of activity in the Romano-British period. An inhumation burial was found at a depth of about seven feet about 120m east of the Site in 1934. Cartographic and documentary evidence showed that South Down Dairy was established on the site by 1838. Details of a South Down Farm within the same ownership are recoded in 1812, but it is not clear whether this referred to the existing Site. Tenuous cartographic evidence was also found for the possible existence of a building on the Site by 1771. this is very tentatively identified with the eastern part of Building C. This building, together with buildings A and B, was in existence by 1838. A visit to the site assessed the amount of ground disturbance that has taken place in the past and the likelihood of the survival of any pre-existing archaeological deposits below the farm complex. Effects were variable. Deep and extensive disturbances has taken place at the north end of the Site and on the site of the farmhouse (Building A), but it is considered that disturbance elsewhere from existing buildings and surfaces is likely to have been localised of shallow. The assessment was not able to discount the presence of archaeological deposits on the Site and a proposal is put forward for the excavation of two evaluation trenches in areas where little disturbance by the development proposals. These trenches are designed to provide sufficient information to allow the Senior Archaeologist for Dorset County Council to reach an informed opinion on the archaeological implications of the planning application.