Site Event/Activity record ECH5122 - Excavations at Nicholas Street Mews, Chester in 1988 (Dominican - Black Friars)

Excavations in advance of housing development were carried out in a small site within the precinct of the friary adjacent to the earlier excavations apparently within the outer court. The first medieval feature on the site was an enormous square put c 4.2m across with chamfered corners and c 5.7m deep, with was lined with well-built masonry walling. A second smaller pit of similar construction was also recorded although the date and function of these features is uncertain it is clear that in the late fifteenth century they were infilled and replaced with a sandstone building. The building had a complex structural history with numerous alterations to partition walls and one major rebuilding around the time of the Dissolution (1).