Dig 2026

The 2026 season will begin on 1st March, with the topsoil stripping. 8th March will be the first excavation day. Lets hope that this continual rain will stop by then! 

 

Pot luck!

 

We have received the pottery report and the results are very interesting. Not only have we dated the large north-south ditches to the 12th-13th century and 13th-14th century but we have a Roman date for the east-west ditches! The DMV has ancient roots. 

'Love the Past' talk

DORSET DIGGERS 'LOVE THE PAST' TALK

Come along to Stratton Village Hall to meet Nessie Fairhair, who will give a talk on the Anglo-Saxons on the 7th of February at 3pm. Tea/coffee & snacks will be available. Members free/non-members £5.  

 

Happy New (Digging) Year!

 

We are all looking forward to the 2026 digging season here at Dorset Diggers. Our next trench will be over one of the house platforms that we believe to be constructed of stone and we also hope that other features will turn up. Last season our small 2m x 4m trench, as well as metal detecting, brought up metal and pottery by the tray load! 

We are also looking forward to the reports on the age and fabric of our 2025 pottery samples, as well as the soil samples we bagged up, which will allow us to reconstruct the immediate environment of the DMV several hundred years ago.  

Keep looking in to find out how much more archaeology we can uncover in 2026.  

AGM 2026

 DDCAG AGM

17th January 2026

Stratton Village Hall @ 2pm

Come along (if you live in Dorset) and see what the Group have been up to in 2025 and what we have planned for 2026. Coffee/tea and snacks will be available! 

 

Waddon update

 

As you saw in our last post, our volunteers were cleaning the ground and they found a nice cut that had gone through the natural stone layer. Here you can see the depth of the cut clearly. The trench was located over a geophysical survey result and it proved to be this ditch. Further research will need to be done to date this feature. Could it be the proof that an Iron Age hillfort was repurposed by the Roman's?  

 

Windy Waddon

DDCAG members are helping Bournemouth University to unearth more information about the site of Waddon Hill, a Roman barracks and possible Iron Age hillfort. Three test pits are being opened to look for features and dating evidence. It is a very exposed site, but our intrepid diggers are unfazed!  

Cleaning up the natural stone. 

Some dating evidence? Hopefully.

Neat excavation work is vital.

Nice view from the 'office'.

More work will be done over the next few days. Look in for more news on this interesting project.