Site Event/Activity record ECH6075 - Bluecoat School Chester: Archaeological Watching Brief

An archaeological watching brief leading to a mitigation excavation was undertaken between April and September 2014 at Bluecoat school, formerly the site of the Hospital of St John the Baptist. This work was carried out in response to a planning condition for the installation of a new ramp to the front courtyard and general refurbishment of the existing building. The excavation work comprised hand excavation of a discrete area in the front courtyard leading to the access passage to the rear of the building, and small scale footing excavations in front of the building for a new dwarf wall. The earliest deposit discovered was a cobbled surface thought to pre-date the 12th century hospital. A secure date was not gained for the cobbles although they are thought to Medieval based on the form of the material above them. However, it should be noted that the Roman road leading north from the fortress of Deva lies immediately to the east of this surface and it is possible that it may represent a rough Roman track or agger from a subsidiary road although there is no finds evidence to support this. Cut into a deposit sealing the cobbled surface were the remains of a series of sandstone walls, these are thought to represent the foundations for the eastern frontage, and also an internal division, of the Medieval hospital. The foundations comprise large, varying size sandstone blocks in ashlar bond with no mortar. The quality of sandstone suggests that the hospital may have had a timber-framed upper section. Associated with the foundations was a female burial aligned east-west but truncated by 20th century service trenches. Given that the burial occurs within the hospital building, it is thought potentially to be that of a nun contemporary with the hospital (13th to 17th century). Large quantities of disarticulated human bone were also recovered from the backfill of a service trench in this area. These bones were also assessed to be female with no obvious signs of disease or trauma. Given that these burials also lay within the hospital building they too are thought likely to be staff. However, in the rear courtyard of the building, previous archaeological excavation revealed a series of female burials showing signs of disease and osteoarthritis, these burials could represent patients of the hospital. The hospital building was demolished in the 17th century as part of the civil war defences and the land left vacant until the early 18th century. Following the war the site was granted to the corporation of Chester and the hospital rebuilt in 1714-17. Maps dating from 1745 show the building in its current plan. In 1854 the central section of the school was enlarged and a new façade created. Sealing the sandstone foundation walls and burial were a series of two deposits which date to the period between 1644 and 1714, this date range is supported by the finds recovered. Cut into the upper part of this 18th century deposit was a dump of architectural material and this is thought to date to the remodelling of the Bluecoat school in 1854.