I NOTE that the current owners of Wimborne Market want to move to the site they like to call Wimborne Showground.

Putting a market there would be cultural vandalism.

I am shocked that anyone would think of causing damage to what was the site of Vespasian’s Camp at Lake Farm.

This area has traces of Mesolithic and Neolithic activity, as well as the early (AD 45) Roman Fort.

The use of the site for occasional circus performances is already causing untold damage by driving large (some over one metre long) tent pegs through the remaining archaeology there, but if they build a covered market they will destroy or cover what remains forever.

The field that is currently used for car boot sales lies inside the Scheduled Ancient Monument of the fortress.

I have been privileged to see the results of surveys undertaken about five years ago by Dave Stewert and a team from Bournemouth University and East Dorset Antiquarian Society and you can clearly see the traces of buildings, roads etc.

It would be an act of vandalism and a betrayal of our heritage to allow any building on the site.

Even outside the immediate area of the fort there are traces of roads, buildings and other things that would only be revealed by a comprehensive archaeological exploration of the area.

There must not be any buildings of any sort put up on this rare example of a fort built during the Roman invasion.

COLIN ALBOROUGH

Kestrel Close, Ferndown