Site Event/Activity record ECH6865 - 2-8 Foregate Street, Chester, Cheshire: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment (DRAFT/CONFIDENTIAL)

A desk-based assessment (DRAFT) was undertaken in 2019 for 2-8 Foregate Street, Chester, in support of conversion of the two Grade II Listed Buildings for retail and, also, a hotel with 38 rooms, through a rear extension to the building. The buildings lie directly outside the site of the Roman fortress, to the east of the medieval city walls and fronts onto Foregate Street, which has formed an important routeway through the city since the Roman period. Archaeological remains recorded in proximity oto the north and south of the site suggest that the Roman, early medieval and medieval city ditch were all aligned north-south through the site. During construction works to the east of the site, a preserved wooden medieval spade was identified, suggesting the presence of waterlogged deposits. Further investigations have indicated that the southern tower of the medieval east gate was probably situated within the site. The two outer towers of the east gate are noted to have survived during the Civil War, but were destroyed or absorbed into the houses on either side of the gate thereafter. An investigation to the north of the site recorded building remains and a sanstone floor butting onto the gate structure which appear to have been demolished in 1768 when the current east gate was constructed. It therefore appars there were post medieval structures present within the site prior to the construction of the extant buildings 2-8 Foregate Street in the late eighteenth/nineteenth centuries. The current buildings are cellared and finds recovered from within the site demonstrate that there has been some truncation within the footprint of the extant buildings. However, there is the potential that more deeply stratified archaeological remains exist. (1)