Site Event/Activity record ECH7229 - Proposed Extension to the Rear of 43 Watergate Row/Weaver Street, Chester, CH1 2AX: Archaeological Evaluation

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 2020 in advance of a proposed rear extension at 43 Watergate Row/Weaver Street, Chester CH1 2AX. Two evaluation trial pits measuring 1.2m by 1.2m were excavated within the proposed extension footprint. A red-brick wall was recorded within the north eastern section of Test Pit 2; it appears to represent an internal dividing wall within the cellar of a single celled structure and corresponds with a building depicted on OS historic mapping. It would seem that when the tenement buildings were demolished during the middle of the 20th century, the structural components of this building were backfilled into the cellar void as it lay open, subsequently the building’s construction materials; bricks, slate, mortar, metal window frames and glass not removed from the site and were left interred within the cellar space. A sandstone wall (107) was recorded in test pit 1 is likely of a medieval date. The wall does not correspond to any walls visible on the historic mapping, and stratigraphically, it predated the Victorian cellar. Additionally, medieval ceramic sherds were found in the deposit immediately overlying the wall. (1)