Site Event/Activity record ECH6262 - Old Government House, Dee Hills Park, Chester. An Archaeologcial Watching Brief. Strip, Map and Record

The features identified during both the watching brief and subsequent strip, map and record survived largely in the form of structural remains. The rectangular concrete foundation platform (101) with bonded red brick (contexts 102/103/104/105/122) almost certainly relates to the garden building associated with the Old Government House of the mid-nineteenth century. The puncturing of this platform by the later balcony column stanchions (contexts 115/117/119) demonstrate that this building had fallen out of use and was subsequently demolished prior to the construction of the later Chatham House extension. The stanchions show evidence of the metal columns that once supported a balcony of Chatham House similar to that on the south of Old Government House. All other service cuts and disturbances within the area of the former garden building are no doubt associated with the construction of the later extension. The shallow pit feature located in the northern return of the 'L' shaped area [124] yielded no dateable evidence and its sub-circular shape offered no clues to its purpose. It is possible that this pit forms the lower extremes of a tree bowl/root disturbance. This project has demonstrated that archaeological features survive at shallow depths in the environs of Dee Hills Park. However, both the features and the finds recorded herein date exclusively to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and correspond with the time when Old Government House was established. With the exception of a residual sherd of feathered slipware dating to the eighteenth century, no other features or artefacts were observed from an earlier date. However, it is still highly likely that significant archaeology survives in situ in the wider area.