Site Event/Activity record ECH7342 - Programme of Research and Excavation, Grosvenor Park: Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project (Parent Record)

A series of training excavations have been carried out, over several seasons, on the west side of Grosvenor Park, by Chester University and Chester Archaeological Service as part of the Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research/CAER Project. The project was initiated in 2007 to support a Conservation Management Plan for the park and an application by Chester City Council to the Heritage Lottery Fund initiative ‘Parks for People’. The excavations were also used as a training project for archaeology students from Chester University. One of the principle objectives was to locate the remains of Cholmondeley’s Mansion (CHER 11045). It is thought that the house occupied the site of earlier medieval buildings attached to the collegiate church of St John (CHER 11033), including a chapel dedicated to St Anne (CHER 11033/4), and a range of petty canons houses (CHER 11033/11/3). Another objective was to establish what the area was used for during the Roman period. A specific target was a substantial north-south ditch which was found during the building of the Union Street baths in 1899 and more recently during an archaeological evaluation prior to the building of retirement homes on the site of St Augustine’s Convent in 1994. The ditch was identified in 2007 (Trench 3). Trenches I, II and III were excavated in 2007 Trench IV in 2012-13 Trenches IV and VIII in 2017-19