Site Event/Activity record ECH7341 - Excavations at Grosvenor Park, Chester in 2019 (Training). Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project (CAER)

A further season of research excavation in Grosvenor Park occurred between 6th and 31st May 2019, as part of The Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research (CAER) Project. Excavation of two Trenches IV and VIII continued. Trench IV revealed a further section of the metalled surface interpreted as a minor Roman road (first identified in 2007) , flanked to the north and south by roadside gullies. The date for the use of this road is implied by material which had become pressed in to the surface including pottery of late second to mid-third century date. To the north of the road surface evidence for earlier occupation in the form of a large refuse pit (also recorded in previous seasons' excavations) was dated to the early/mid-second century on the basis of the pottery recovered from the fills. At the western end of Trench IV, the substantial N-S, linear ditch, which cut through the Roman cobbled road, was further investigated. This ditch was seen to have been re-cut on at least one occasion. Roundwood withies found in the lower fill of the earliest ditch were sampled for radio-carbon dating which produced a calibrated date of 774-906 cal AD (71.7%) or 916-968 cal AD (23.7%) (Beta – 533416). It seems likely that the ditch is associated with the pre-Norman minster church of St. John and may delimit part of the ‘bishop’s borough’ referred to in the Domesday entry for Chester. At the eastern end of Trench VIII the eastern side of a north-south aligned late medieval ditch, previously identified, was investigated further. This was associated with the top of an inner stone revetment possibly marking the eastern boundary of St John’s precinct. A robber trench on the same alignment was also identified. At the western end of Trench VIII a series of structural remains in the form of a possible beam slot and a row of three possible postholes are likely to be associated with part of the Cholmondeley’s building complex. A linear feature aligned north-west/south-east was traced south-east and is likely to extend further across the trench than this. The fill produced pottery of 16th century date. (1)