Site Event/Activity record ECH6296 - New Crane Street Car Park, Chester: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

Desk based assessment has considered data recovered from ten archaeological interventions (Events) located within, or immediately adjacent to, the study areas, in addition to other sources of information, including historical mapping. In total, 12 Monuments of archaeological and historical significance have been identified from the Chester UAD as lying within, or close to, the study area. The work has demonstrated that archaeological remains are likely to survive within the New Crane Street car-park, and, potentially at least, along the entire route of the electricity cable connecting the proposed substation to the Northgate development, though the degree of preservation beneath the carriageways of New Crane Street and Watergate Street is difficult to assess. The car-park, and the route proposed for the electricity cable, lie within Chester’s Area of Archaeological Importance, and the site of the medieval Water Gate, a Scheduled Monument, is crossed by the proposed cable at or near the New Crane Street/Watergate Street junction. In addition to the Water Gate itself, remains of possible national significance under potential threat of disturbance include deposits associated with the Roman civil settlement that are known to survive along Watergate Street. Regionally significant archaeology that may suffer an adverse impact includes the ditch fronting the medieval defences, elements of Chester’s medieval urban core (on Watergate Street), and remains associated with the development of the New Crane Street area in the eighteenth/nineteenth century. In view of the above, an appropriate archaeological strategy should be developed in order to mitigate the effects of the proposed scheme on any surviving below-ground archaeology, since it seems clear that there is a high probability that groundworks will result in damage to, or destruction of, archaeological remains of sufficient importance to warrant excavation and recording.