Site Event/Activity record ECH6155 - A Watching brief at King Charles Tower, Green, City Walls, Chester

Six small test pits machine excavated in order to inform ground conditions and potential depth of significant archaeology ahead of a programme of environmental and access improvements to the area immediately beyond the city walls and to the south of the King Charles Tower. The results of a recent archaeological evaluation of the site demonstrated that. Away from the City Walls, the steep bank partially comprised sandstone rubble, perhaps deposited during the cutting of the Chester to Nantwich canal (later the Shropshire Union canal) opened in 1779. In general terms, the results of the test pit excavations reflected those of the previous archaeological evaluation. The test pits commonly contained thick layers of sandstone rubble (TPs 1, 2, 5 and 6), similar to that recorded in the evaluation trenches, forming the steep bank, or building debris such as plaster and mortar (TP 3) or brick rubble (TP 4). In the light of the results of test pit 4 it can now be clarified that the archaeological trench excavated close to this location (evaluation trench 4) exposed the level of the natural bedrock at approximately 0.90m below current ground level. Furthermore, the results of test pit 4 demonstrate that the level of the natural bedrock geology in this location had almost certainly been modified as there was no indication of buried soils between the layer of sand encountered and the top of the bedrock. The sand layer was probably deposited as a bedding layer for the subsequent compacted layer of cinders which almost certainly formed a crude but robust surface.