The Poundbury aqueduct was an open leat or channel, approximately 19 km long, that supplied water to the Roman town of Durnovaria (Dorchester) from sources in the Frome valley near Notton. It was probably constructed in the later 1st or 2nd century AD and remained in use through much of the Roman period, with its course traceable as a terraced contour following the natural gradient along the south side of the Frome valley. The associated hillfort of Poundbury Camp, an Iron Age earthwork reused in the Roman and later periods, was cut through by the aqueduct, which clipped its northern rampart.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The aqueduct represents one of the longest and best-preserved Roman open-channel aqueducts known in Britain, demonstrating the level of civic infrastructure invested in Durnovaria, the civitas capital of the Durotriges. It is a key example of Romano-British hydraulic engineering, comparable in scale to the Dorchester-on-Thames or Lincoln supplies.
The course was first mapped systematically by RCHME and has been investigated through fieldwork by Putnam, Bellamy and others, showing a channel roughly 1.5 m wide cut into the hillside as a terrace, though no masonry-lined sections or substantial structures have been confirmed. Notably, recent analysis has questioned whether the aqueduct was ever actually completed and brought into operation, since clear evidence of water-borne depos
The Poundbury aqueduct was an open leat or channel, approximately 19 km long, that supplied water to the Roman town of Durnovaria (Dorchester) from sources in the Frome valley near Notton. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a aqueduct site from the Roman period in Britain.
Poundbury Camp, associated monuments and section of Roman aqueduct. is classified as a Roman aqueduct — a infrastructure site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Colliton Park Roman house (0.9 km), Discontinuous surviving sections of Roman aqueduct (1.2 km), Part of Roman, Saxon, and medieval town in grounds of Wollaston House (1.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Poundbury Camp, associated monuments and section of Roman aqueduct.