Site Event/Activity record ECH4343 - Watching Brief at Laburnum Cottage, Broomheath Lane, Tarvin.

A ditch feature, [10], was observed in Slots 2 and 4; pottery recovered from its fill suggests it was open during the mid-seventeenth century. A simialar, broad but shallow ditch feature was recorded a short distance to the east. This feature was interpreted as the corner of an enclosure of uncertain date; unfortunately no dating evidence was recovered. Given the estimated date of the ditch, a period of history which witnessed the disruption caused by the English Civil Wars, it is tempting to see this feature as belonging to a circumvallation, redoubt or simialr earthwork fortification surrounding the outskirts of Tarvin. Certainly, documentary evidence confirms the presence of fortifications, troops and artillery pieces in Tarvin during the English Civil War, and particularly the siege of Chester in 1645.