NHER 69801 (Monument record) - Post-medieval ditches

February 2025. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of large proposed development site (Field 1; Trenches 1-19).
The nineteen trenches excavated at this location revealed no evidence for activity prior to the post-medieval period. Features were limited to several ditches, most, if not all of which had probably been associated with relatively recent field boundaries. These included north-west to south-east and north-east to south-west features that correspond with boundaries on the Wereham tithe map (S1), one of which contained a post-medieval iron horseshoe. An east-to-west aligned ditch crossing the southern part of the site was associated with a later field boundary depicted on the Ordnance Survey First Edition map (S2). A pantile fragment of late post-medieval/modern date and several modern objects were recovered from this feature. A north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditch crossing the western half of the field wasn't associated with any of the boundaries shown on the available 19th-century maps but contained a fragment of post-medieval pottery. A sample taken from the fill of this ditch was found to contain a range of waterlogged plant remains but charcoal was negligible and other charred plant macrofossils notable absent.
Although a number of discrete features were investigated these were all deemed to be of natural origin.
No unstratified finds were recovered.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 8 April 2026.