Site Event/Activity record ECH7355 - Archaeological Evaluation Report: Dee House Chapel

Two archaeological trial pits were excavated at the eastern end of Dee House, Chester, in April 2024, to inform proposed works to halt the movement of the chapel foundations and repair to the building. Both trial pits were excavated to a depth of 2m below current ground level and in each case the foundations of the Dee House chapel were seen to extend below this depth. The brick buttress protruding from the chapel wall between trial pits 1 and 2 was seen to have no foundation, indicating that it was a purely decorative feature. The upper sequence of structures and deposits were very similar in both trial pits. A ceramic drain pipe was found to be running parallel to the chapel wall and a section of this pipe had previously been removed in the location of trial pit 2. The ceramic drain had originally served 2 surface water grids located against the chapel wall which in turn were fed by gutter downpipes from the chapel roof. To the east of the ceramic drain was a substantial brick wall foundation which was present in both trial pits and had previously been encountered at the northern end of Dee House chapel during the 1993 evaluation. The historic mapping would suggest that this earlier structure was the original eastern boundary wall to Dee House as depicted on Laveaux’s map of 1745. The brick wall foundation was cut into a backfilled pit in trial pit 1 which produced late medieval pottery. This pit bottomed out at about 1.9m below ground level and could be seen to be cut into fairly sterile sandy deposits which are typical of backfill within the Roman amphitheatre arena. These backfill deposits were also encountered at the base of trial pit 2. No structural elements of the Roman amphitheatre were uncovered. (1)