Site Event/Activity record ECH3440 - Excavation on line of a new access road, 1993, William Morrison Supermarket

Excavation undertaken on the line of a new access road for the Morrison's store. Source - Roman Wilderpool Publication. Giffords. Unpublished document: SCH3834 - MISSING DOCUMENT. Following description taken from Monument record CHER 435/0/8 which is sourced to SCH3834:- Excavation on the line of the new access road to the new Morrison's Supermarket in 1993. The remains of timber-framed buildings, associated hearths and furnaces were found. Occupation is evident from the 1st century to the 4th century AD. There is evidence of industrial activity including pottery and metalworking. The sequence suggests that in the early years of settlement the excavation area was a part of the domestic settlement, while in later years industrial activity moved here from King Street when large high status buildings began to be built there. In the early-mid 2nd century most of the buildings appear to have been dwellings, of wattle and daub, with clay floors and ovens, hearths or kilns. Some iron smithing had occurred. There was an open fronted workshop, but the main industrial phase was in the later 2nd century when the buildings were timber-framed with wattle and daub walls and well constructed clay ovens, large fireplaces, hearths and masses of smithing slag. These buildings were demolished in the late 2nd/early 3rd century AD. In the mid-late 3rd century the alley was cobbled and there was evidence of 2 large fireplaces, interpreted as blacksmith's hearths, within open sided shelters of wattle and daub. (1) Newspaper articles, two dating to 1993, concerning the programme of archaeological work undertaken at the Greenall Brewery Site during redevelopment work in the early 1990s, specifically the discoveries of the excavations undertaken in 1993. The articles discuss the remains of timber-framed buildings, such as beam slots, post holes and clay floor remnants, also evidence for lead-working furnaces. Also recovered artefacts including buckles, brooches, coins dating to the 1st/2nd century AD, a forged coin, industrial slag, also a copper alloy medicinal implement and a wood plane. Recovered pottery included fragments of amphorae, samian, local pottery. (2) 'The Romans at Wilderspool: The story of the first industrial development on the Mersey'. Popular publication produced in 1995 authored by Tim Strickland the leading consultant archaeologist at Gifford's, who led the programme of archaeological mitigation in the early 1990s during the redevelopment of the Greenall's Brewery site, including the Morrison's store. (3) (See also source 2, Chester Chronicle article, 10/02/1995) Published account (2007) of the archaeological excavations at the Greenall Brewery Site in the 1990s. Written by Ian Rogers one of the archaeologists working with Tim Strickland. The article was given a poor review (in Britannia, Vol 41, Nov 2010, p.496-497) due to lack of fundamental archaeological data presented to support interpretations given. (4) Excavation archive from the programme of work at the Greenall Brewery Site held by Warrington Museum.