Site Event/Activity record ECH2823 - Excavations at 11 - 15 Castle Street (Mansio Site), 1976 - 1978 (Chester)

Excavation took place alongside construction work on the site of the Salvation Army Citadel (1). This work revealed a different sequence of events when compared to earlier excavations undertaken to the north of this site, as the Castle St. site appears to have been occupied from the late first century, with a timber building and later phases of rebuilding and reconstruction (1). In 1975 preparations began for a new housing development on the sites of numbers 11 - 13 Castle Street, to the rear of 13 and 15 and requiring the demolition of Number 13 and the Salvation Army Citadel (5). At this site the overburden was significantly less than expected and the remains of a well preserved Roman building was discovered. Although total excavation was not attempted primarily because the new development would not significantly impact on the archaeology. Work was primarily carried out as a salvage watching brief with limited opportunity for detailed excavation. Summary of phases: Timber Phases I - III. The excavations indicated three phases of timber structures between AD 75 - 110. The structure comprised a range of rooms on an east - west alignment with no external veranda. Stone Phases I - IV4a. In around AD 110 - 120 the timber structure was rebuilt in stone and there were then four phases of stone structures on the site until the mid-fourth century. The area also produced an exceptionally undisturbed sequence of medieval occupation, the first tangible remains of late-Saxon buildings identified in the city, indirect evidence for eighth and ninth century occupation above the Roman material mentioned above (5).