Site Event/Activity record ECH6866 - 17 Nicholas Court, Nicholas Street Mews, Chester: Archaeological Evaluation

An archaeological test pit was excavated on 13/06/2018 at the location of a proposed new garage at 17 Nicholas Court, Nicholas Street Mews, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 2QS. The pit measured 1.2m in length by 1.2m in width and was located towards the centre of the site. The site lies within Chester's Area of Archaeological Potential and within the former precinct of the Dominican Friary, for which remains of the church, cloister and other medieval buildings have been recorded just to the south. Additionally, to the north of the site, the remains of a substantial Roman building were excavated in 1959. Results showed that the entirety of the proposed development site had been covered in a gravel substrata, presumably to create a hardstanding for the parking of vehicles and over time this had been lightly covered by topsoil. There were no archaeological features found within the test pit however the stratigraphy showed that the area had previously had a relatively deep deposit (0.96m) spread across it to create a levelling layer. This deposit contained Roman CBM as well as medieval pottery and modern brick, plastic and iron. This suggests that the Roman and medieval artefacts were residual in nature and that the deposit was of modern date, most likely having been deposited during the construction of the properties at Nicholas Court in 1988. (1)