A petition to ensure that a full archaeological investigation is carried out at the Charles Street redevelopment site before work commences.
West Dorset District Council has shocked and appalled archaeologists by insisting that the controversial Charles Street development be allowed to go ahead without an adequate archaeological investigation prior to the bulldozers moving in.
The site lies within the walls of the Roman town, and its archaeology is likely to include vital clues to our town’s history, from prehistoric times to the present. Flying in the face of English Heritage’s advice, and acting against the spirit of the law where archaeology and development are concerned, the Council has decided to squander a major opportunity to explore and enhance the understanding of Dorchester’s past. Instead of a thorough investigation of what remains below ground level, the site is to be destroyed and removed for landfill, after a mere cursory examination.
The Council employed consultants to provide a report which assessed the site as being of only ‘medium’ importance, despite the fact that it is bounded on one side by the remains of Dorchester’s Roman bath-house, and on another by a unique and internationally important Neolithic henge monument. This report contains many factual errors and omissions, and its ‘fitness for purpose’ has been questioned by an internationally renowned and respected archaeologist. By their own admission the consultants’ assessment was ‘refined in order to reduce expenditure and maintain the economic viability of the development scheme’. Hardly the statement one might expect of detached, unbiased professionals!
Plainly, the Council are determined to see the project through at any cost. So far this has included several millions of pounds of ratepayers’ money – now it seems as if it will also be at the cost of our town’s heritage, and the future opportunity for generations of residents, visitors, students and historians to enjoy, study and understand a vital part of Dorchester’s history.
Thomas Hardy only exaggerated marginally when he asserted that ‘It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the town fields and gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the Empire, who had lain there in his silent unobtrusive rest for a space of fifteen hundred years.’ Prince Charles has written that ‘If you destroy the past, or consistently deny its relevance to the present, man eventually loses his soul and his roots’.
In the early nineteenth century, a group of Dorchester residents, led by the poet William Barnes, managed to avert the demolition of Maumbury Rings by Brunel’s Great Western Railway by forming a pressure group and lobbying against the wanton destruction of our town’s priceless heritage. Now we need to act again, to make sure that when development occurs, that heritage is treated with the respect it deserves, and is properly investigated, recorded and conserved.
Please support D.O.R.C.H.’s actions to try to make West Dorset District Council change its mind, and ensure that a full and thorough excavation is carried out. Our future as a unique historic town depends on it.
Petition here:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-dorchester-s-archaeology
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road