Site Event/Activity record ECH6714 - The Grosvenor Centre, Chester: Archaeological Watching Brief

Planning permission (18/01067) has been granted for the change of use of vacant office space on the Pepper Street frontage of the Grosvenor shopping centre to a hotel with conversion of the ground floor shops on either side of the main entrance to a bar and restaurant. As this was a change of use application, with no below-ground works, there was no consultation of the Archaeology Planning Advisory Service and no archaeological conditions were attached. During development works (centred SJ4062 6619) it became apparent that there had been some intrusions through the slab of the former shops on either side of the main entrance in order to accommodate new services. These shops occupy the southern line of the defences of the Roman fortress and works in 1984, on the site of the present escalator, had revealed the base of the fortress wall and the rampart (ECH5149). However, it was not clear from the existing records whether the deposits under the floor slab of the shops remained in situ or had been wholly removed during the construction of the shopping centre (as is certainly the case within the footprint of the main shopping centre). It should also be noted that the 19th-century historic mapping shows a small graveyard within the area occupied by the former range of shops to the west of the main centre entrance. This was associated with the former St Michael’s church (CHER 10076). Again, there was no information on whether these burial remained in situ or had been cleared during construction of the Grosvenor centre. On 6 June 2019, Mark Leah (of CAPAS) visited the site to inspect the open service trenches. An annotated drainage plan is attached to this summary but, in brief, the new services had been cut to a depth of c 1m at their south-western terminus, where they were to enter into a reconstructed collection drain and manhole, rising to a depth of c 0.8m in the north-east corner. The contractor stated that these were largely re-used drainage runs but the exposed sides of the trench made clear that they had been cut through in situ strata and that there had been no wholesale removal of deposits during initial construction. However, the service trenches did not appear to have reached significant archaeological remains as, underneath the slab and sub-base, a typical homogenised dark soil was seen, much cut about by services. Some brick foundations were seen cut into this deposit but there was no trace of earlier archaeological remains or of disturbed burials. In the area to the east of the main entrance, further service had been cut through the slab but these were typically no deeper than 0.5m and did not reveal anything of interest. Along the street frontage to the east of the main entrance, there were localised areas of deeper disturbance connected with the linkage of services into the existing network but these were all cut into disturbed ground. In summary, the work has not revealed any significant archaeological remains but it has clarified the position as regards the survival of archaeological strata in the area between the north side of Pepper Street and the cut for the main basement of the Grosvenor centre, beyond which all remains were removed during construction of the centre. (1)