Site Event/Activity record ECH4315 - Garden Lane Car Park, Chester: Archaeological Impact Assessment

The conclusions of this desk-based assessment were as follows. In the Roman period the area beyond the northern defences is known to have been used as a cemetery with burials flanking the road which left the north gate of the legionary fortress heading for the Wirral. There is the additional possibility of street frontage development beside this road whose line is perpetuated by Upper Northgate Street. Little is known about activity on the site in the earlier medieval period but it is clear from cartographic evidence the Upper Northgate Street frontage was already fully occupied by buildings by the mid-sixteenth century, a situation that had probably existed for several centuries. The land immediately to the rear of the sites of these buildings is likely to contain associated deposits rich in artefactual and faunal remains. A thoroughfare on the line of modern Garden Lane was alrady in existence by the fourteenth century. This was known as Portpool Way and led down to the 'port pool', the main anchorage for ships waiting to dock at Chester. Continuing ribbon development further out along Upper Northgate Street was interrupted by the Civil War, when large parts of the suburbs outside the North Wall were devestated. Documentary evidence suggests the area between Upper Northgate Street and Garden Lane was utilised for Civil War defences prior to the attacks of 1643.