Site Event/Activity record ECH5193 - Excavations at Black Friars House, Chester 1986 (Medieval Black Friars site)

A trench cut across the garden of Grey Friars House in 1986 revealed more of the substantial Roman building discovered in 1983 (CHER 8070). The 1986 trench located the southern, outer wall of the building and, to the south, a sandstone-surfaced road or courtyard cut by a tile-bottomed drain running in a westerly direction towards the Roodee. Traces of an earlier timber building of late first to early second century date were also encountered, the demolition levels of which yielded numerous fragments of high quality wall- plaster. Sealed beneath the floor levels of this earlier building were deposits representing primary occupation of the site, containing large amounts of charcoal and produced some slight evidence for lead-working activity (1).