Site Event/Activity record ECH6333 - Milton Street, Chester 2016: Sample Excavation of a Civil War Ditch

In 2014, an archaeological evaluation was undertaken ahead of the construction of a residential development at the junction of Milton Street and Charles Street, Chester. This revealed evidence for a substantial ditch feature dated by artefactual evidence to the second half of the 17th century and believed to relate to the Royalist Civil War defences of Chester. Following on from this, in June 2016, a further trench (5.5m by 6.0m) was opened to sample excavate and record the ditch in greater detail. Due to the narrow, constricted working space allowed by the site, it was not possible to expose and record a full cross-section of the ditch, but the full depth was established. The ditch was aligned roughly north-west to south-east, and had a depth of approximately 1.8m and a width of over 4m. The ditch contained a sequence of deposits including a black, organically-rich fill comprising a compressed layer of small, well-preserved fragments of roundwood and twigs, a sample of which was taken for palaeo-environmental assessment. Overlying this was a series of more substantial bulk soils that had been deposited into the ditch. The artefactual evidence recovered was primarily pottery and clay tobacco pipe, along with an almost complete example of a leather shoe; the earliest silting deposit within the ditch contained a single clay pipe spur dating from 1640 - 1670. The majority of finds came from a later deposit and included a fragment of a creamware jug, suggesting that the ditch remained open, at least partially, into the second half of the 18th century. (1)