This aqueduct served Durnovaria (modern Dorchester, Dorset), the civitas capital of the Durotriges, channelling water from springs in the Frome valley near Notton, west of the town. Active from probably the late 1st or early 2nd century AD through much of the Roman period, it ran as an open leat for approximately 12-16 km along the contours of the chalk downland, with an estimated capacity of around 13 million gallons per day, making it one of the largest known aqueducts in Roman Britain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The scale of the supply far exceeded domestic needs and indicates provision for public baths, fountains, and possibly industrial uses, reflecting Durnovaria's status as a major regional centre. Its construction represents one of the most ambitious pieces of civilian hydraulic engineering in the province.
The leat has been traced as a hillside terrace by Crawford, RCHME, and later geophysical and lidar surveys, surviving best on the slopes around Poundbury and Fordington Bottom, with sections excavated by Putnam and Bellamy in the 1970s-80s. No masonry channel or lining has been securely identified, suggesting it was an unlined or clay-lined earthwork conduit, and the precise intake point and terminal distribution arrangements within the town remain uncertain.
This aqueduct served Durnovaria (modern Dorchester, Dorset), the civitas capital of the Durotriges, channelling water from springs in the Frome valley near Notton, west of the town. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a aqueduct site from the Roman period in Britain.
Untitled 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 Unnamed quarry (0 km), Jordan Hill Roman Temple (16.1 km), Preston Roman villa (16.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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