Some Modern Roads and an Ancient Settlement.

In 1967 the 11-year-olds at Broadmayne School took part in digging up the remains of a small native settlement of the first three or four centuries AD. The remains were discovered during the building of the housing estate between the ancient Pearse’s Lane (now renamed Rectory Road – see see inclosure map HERE) and the new roads named Conway Drive and Broadmead.

Local schoolchildren help in discoveries 1967

There was a keen and experienced amateur archaeologist at hand in the person of Don Young, who lived in Martel Close. The builder and his site foreman were co-operative, the head and deputy-head teacher of the school were enthusiastic, and in the summer of 1967 a team of children, their parents and the school staff excavated a corner of the building site near the junction of Conway Drive and Rectory Road.

The enterprise got off to a flying start with the discovery of a skull on the very first day. Excavation revealed the rest of the skeleton and six Iron Age pots, four of them quite undamaged. As some of the children pointed out, the skull’s teeth showed no sign of decay but were worn almost flat – the Iron Age food needed a lot of chewing.

Further exploration of the whole area was handed over to the local archaeological society for more expert investigation. Iron Age remains were found on almost all the building plots in the south-eastern part of the estate, where the subsoil is of chalk; there were no finds to the north-west, where the chalk is replaced by clay. The finds included the remains of three burials, a grain storage pit, two ovens, a few coins and a good many pieces of pottery. The pottery was mostly native Durotrigian (Iron Age) ware which could have dated from well before the Roman invasion of AD 43. Some of it however suggests that the site was occupied from the first until the fourth century AD, the brooch can be dated as AD 41 - 68 and the coins as AD 253 - 273. There is a full report by Don Young in volume 95 of the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society.

Roads & tracks
Roads & Bridleways as shown on the Inclosure Award Map