Site Event/Activity record ECH5110 - Excavations at 12 Watergate Street (10 Watergate Street Row), 1984 - 1987 (Chester)

Excavations carried out at 12 Watergate St. (10 Watergate St. Row) between 1984 and 1987 were carried out following a building survey (ECH5109). Roman evidence consisted of several sandstone walls which defined parts of five rooms disposed in two ranges and aligned east to west with each range being further subdivided by internal partitions. No structural evidence from the Saxon period was recorded although some pottery was recovered (1). Roman features were first discovered when the back wall of the medieval undercroft was demolished with evidence of the timber phase principia followed by four phases of stone construction. Evidence of at least five rooms are indicated (4). There was limited evidence from the Saxon period, largely comprising small finds while the earliest evidence for the medieval structures came from dendrochronological dating, producing an estimated felling date of 1207 by comparison with other sequences (4). The excavations also identified a series of pits at the rear of the development plot. One of the pits contained a large amount of organic refuse and pottery dating to the thirteenth century. Samples taken from the pit yielded cereal remains with fragments of cornfield weed seeds that had probably been milled with the grain, consumed and defaecated. There were some charred grains, peas and beans, perhaps from household waste. There were also fruitstones and pips, and small fregments of Allium epidermis and a leek seed, also waterlogged pea and bean fragments.The importance of the material is its good level of preservation that allows new insight into past diet and farming. (5)