Transcribed by Michael Russell OPC for Dorchester - March 2017

DORCHESTER DIVISION.

THE TOWN AND BOROUGH OF DORCHESTER.

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Antiquities - Part 26
Pages 394-397

[Note:- See picture above included as part of John Hutchins account. It was discovered by the Rev. Edward COZENS (1690-1753) who was Master of the 'Free School' in Dorchester from 1736-1749. John PITT (1706-1787) of Encombe represented Dorchester in Parliament from 1751 to 1761

"This portion of the Roman Pavement was discovered in the prison ground, four feet from the surface, August 10, 1858, and transferred to the Chapel by order of the Visiting Justices. J.V.LAWRENCE, Governor"

After the removal of the pavement in order to ascertain on what foundation it was placed, borings were made, and layers of flints three in number were discovered. Upon each layer was placed lime concrete to the depth of six inches, making altogether a solid bed more than two feet in thickness., impervious to damp. At the bottom the bore came to the virgin chalk, which exhibited signs of containing much moisture. At a distance of eighteen feet from the threshold, in a slanting direction, due east, a pit of rough stones nine feet deep, was met with four feet below the present surface. Amongst the earth with which it had been filled up, charcoal, bones of animals pieces of Roman pottery, and many fragments of a peculiar kind of vase were dug up. A wall five feet in length, four in breadth, but only two in depth, abutted on one side of this pit, which was terminated by another, ten feet long, in a south westerly direction; this was again intersected by one twenty-two feet in length, running south east which was met by another wall of eighteen feet, turning north-east, where it was built into another of only four feet in length, and proceeded no further. At this point were discovered several large stones carefully sawn and dressed, two of which were curiously carved. They are now fixed over the doorways of the gaol chapel, and the mouldings sculptured on them seem to be of the Norman style of architecture. A portion of the cement with which the walls of the room were covered had been painted pale green, with a border of maroon and two shades of red. In the center of the space partly enclosed by the walls already mentioned another pit five feet in depth, built of rough stone, was found, which also contained charcoal, pieces of pottery, portions of Roman vases, and animal bones. Other relics were generally turned up with the earth throughout the excavations near the walls several bone pins were found embedded in the earth, one of which had a flat circular head; another a head of a fourteen-sided geometrical solid; and another a roundish one (their lengths varied from two to four inches); the glass bottom of a small and rather flat vessel; a boar's tusk and a tooth in excellent preservation and a considerable quantity of bones and teeth of an ox. The cork of an amphora, with a circular bronze plate and ring on the top for drawing it, a flat metal shaft passing through the cork, and fastened by a small plate at the bottom, as also a piece of the neck of the amphora fitting the cork, were brought to light. The foundations above described were bounded on the north side at a distance of three feet by another wall of stone, seven feet from the surface, twenty in length, varying in breadth from two and a half to five feet; its depth in front was seven feet, but behind only two, being built upon solid chalk. It appears that the earth had been removed in front in form of a square for some purpose, but afterwards filled up, which would account for its greater height on this side. The portion of this wall at the north-west end appeared to terminate suddenly, but subsequent excavations clearly evinced that it had proceeded at one time further, but had been removed, the exact width being seen, but no vestiges of it were to be found. In the square place were discovered a vase and portions of another, and under the foundations of the wall a third. It being suspected that other portions of the same edifice would be discovered, a further search again at a depth of four feet from the surface revealed some fine portions of pavements designed in medallions encircled by a guilloche of the same pattern as that exhumed in 1854, but different in colour; the tesseræ had been much disturbed, so that no portion of the original pattern could be distinctly made out, with the exception of the guilloche, which was entire, and was transferred to the chapel of the prison in the same manner as the pavement.

The site of this apartment was upon made ground over which chalk was spread one foot in depth, the whole entirely covered by a solid mass of flints and cement grouted together three feet in thickness upon which the pavement was laid. The Wall of this room, two feet in thickness, was afterwards discovered, and the size of the apartment was eighteen feet, and the doorstep of the room which contained the pavement originally discovered communicated with this one from the same level. Many fragments of the painted walls in good preservation were here found; on red bordered with black, and white with a border of black and red. It is suggested that the fact of the square pit having been constructed in the centre of the room, as above described, proclaims the foundations previously mentioned to be of a more recent date, consequently not Roman; for it is scarcely to be imagined that in constructing what appeared to be an ash pit, it should have been erected in the center of the room, or that so magnificent a room should be destroyed for that purpose as was the case in this instance.

The boundary wall, however, already alluded to, on the north side, bears evidence of being Roman. The foundations of a wall in a south-westerly direction, 36ft in length, formed the side of the two rooms above described. Pat of another wall and some remains of a tessellated pavement with a border of a chain-pattern indicated the existence of another apartment, but the tesseræ were so disarranged that it was impossible to make out the pattern; the centre of this room, however, was composed only of stone coloured mosaics of a larger size, formed in a circle, the border of the pavement which was the only vestige remaining was presented to the County Museum. It made the fourth apartment in the suit of rooms.

In October 1840 an interesting discovery of Roman remains was made in the meadow adjoining Dorchester to the eastward. Some men employed in cleaning out and lowering the bed of the river found a few mutilated Roman coins of the brass with a fragment or two of dark ware, and digging a little deeper in this spot the succeeded in discovering from 300 to 400 coins curiously intermingled with fragments of thin brass, portions of brass instruments, a fibula, brass rings, rings of twisted wire, the front of a heart shaped clasp beautifully inlaid with enamel, fragments of Samian pottery, &c. all lying on a hard bed constituted of a rude kind of cement, composed of the ordinary detritus of the river, with flints, sand, large nails, and other iron fragments firmly compacted together and bearing occasional indications of scoriæ

The coins were nearly all of the third brass, with a few of the first brass, and comprised the reigns of Hadrianus, Antoninus Pias, Faustina the Elder, Faustina the Younger, Gallienus, Salonina, Postumus, Victorinus, Retricus the Elder, Tetricus the Younger, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelianus, Tacitus, Probus, Carausius, Allectus, Maximinus, Crispus, &c. thus embracing a lapse of time of upwards of 200 years, ranging from A.D. 117 to a.d. 326. though some few were in fine preservation, the great bulk of these coins was in the worst possible condition, and the fragment of brass and other circumstances with which they were associated, render it not improbable that they might have formed a collection of metal for the purpose of being recast: though if this be the case the discovery being made in the bed of a river can only be accounted for on the supposition that the course of the stream may have changed since the deposit was made (Ref Sydenham MSS).

In 1841one of those relics of the Romano-British æra so frequently brought to light at Dorchester was discovered during the process of digging a tank in a field near the south-west angle of the town. It was an imperfect fragment of a tessallated pavement, measuring about 14ft by 8ft, which formed a portion of the floor of an apartment of a Romano-British dwelling with a recessed zotheca or alcove, which later, whilst the dwelling was inhabited, was perhaps separated from the larger room by hanging drapery. The whole of the floor had been destroyed at some previous period, leaving only a portion of the guilloche border, with an outer border of spiral and circular ornaments. From this the floor of the zotheca, which was formed of a very favourite pattern in such pavements, was divided by a series of large lozenges. The tesseræ were about half an inch square, and the colours were rich and varied, comprising black, red, blue, white, and light brown. The outer border was of a coarser white tesseræ. As the sinking of the tank was proceeded with this relic was destroyed.

In the same year labourers employed in leveling the meadow between the river Frome and the north walk at Dorchester, found buried in the chalk close to the bottom of Glydepath Hill several human skeletons, near one of which were three small vases. Two were of the ordinary barrel form, of dark ware, one with a black polished surface, the other of a brown colour and absorbent texture. The third was of more depressed form, of a light red ware, fine soft texture, and of the Græco-Roman character. They were all unornamented. The two former were of the same size and figure, about two inches in height; the third somewhat shorter. They were perhaps used for holding ungent, oils, or balsams. Round the neck of another of the skeletons was an iron collar fastening behind with a spring. It is suggested that this is a mark of slavery, but it was probably analogous with the torque of the Celtæ.

From this town issue several Vicinal Roads besides the Via Iceniana. One passes the meadow of Wolverton; another to Bradford, and thence to Ilchester; another runs south to Monkton and Weymouth; and a fourth to Wareham.

"After all these marks of antiquity in it and its environs" says Hutchins, "It is strange that Mr Baxter should remove his place to Maiden Castle, though Ptolemy expressly calls Dunium the metropolis of the Durotriges;and more strange that Mr Horsey should remove it to Eggerton Hill, after having confessed that the name, walls, coins, amphitheatre, camp , &c. and the consent of all antiquaries, left no room to doubt its having been Roman" ⁽⁴⁾.

From the foregoing discoveries we gather sufficient to shew that Dorchester, or rather Durnovaria, must have been a town of considerable importance during the æra of Roman occupation; indeed, fragmentary relics of this period are continually turned up all over the town whenever the surface is penetrated to a sufficient dept. The level at which these remains are found is usually about four feet below the present surface.

Dr POCOCK shewed the Society of Antiquaries, 1750, a gold ring found in the river Frome, about two miles above Dorchester, half an inch thick, valued at £3.17s.6d. and brought to the town by George TRENCHARD esq.

A large signet ring with the initial 'I' was dug up some years ago in the rectorial glebe of the Holy Trinity; and another picked up in the school garden had "Simon EYRE" on it, and round it "Dorchester 1657".