Site Event/Activity record ECH7389 - Chester Racecourse: Proposed Facilities Hub at Saddlery Way Car Park and Inner Course Hospitality Building: Archaeology Assessment

An archaeological desk-based assessment was undertaken in 2024 in support of a planning application for erection of a Facilities Hub at Saddlery Way car park site, Chester, including the demolition of an existing pavilion on the inner course and erection of a Hospitality Building. The northern half of the site is within an Area of Archaeological Importance and the site is wholly within Chester’s Primary Archaeological Character Zone. This Zone is further characterised into more refined Character Zones; Saddlery Way Car Park Site is within Character Zone 54 (Chester Harbour), whilst the Hospitality Building site is not within the Area of Archaeological Importance but is within the Zone 53 (The Roodee). Zone 53 is considered that remains of National Significance may be present whilst Zone 54 is likely to be characterised by remains of primarily Regional Significance. In both cases, where such remains may be affected by development, measures will be required to mitigate the effect of development. In historic and archaeological terms, the specific and principal interest at the sites is associated with the following: • Isolated artefacts dating to the Roman period. • Archaeological evidence of the Roman harbour at the Roodee. • Archaeological evidence of Chester’s medieval port. • Archaeological evidence of 17th century land reclamation and occupation. • Archaeological evidence for 18th and 19th century structures, a timber yard and land use in the area of the Old Port. • Archaeological evidence of the use of Chester Racecourse. • Archaeological evidence associated with 18th and 19th century domestic occupation and other activity along the thoroughfares of Crane Street, Paradise Row, Grosvenor Court 1, Crane Bank and River Lane. The walk-over survey of the Saddlery Way Car Park Site noted a number of features of historic interest including a wall and a pedestrian/vehicle gate to the now demolished Chester Gas Works. (1) The Saddlery Way site lies within the floodplain of the Dee which was reclaimed in the post medieval period when a series of port and domestic structures were established. Evidence of these has been encountered at the southern limits of the site during previous evaluations. At the Roodee, Roman burials are known from the racecourse area but all recent investigations conducted during a series of watching briefs undertaken in connection with previous developments within the racecourse circuit have encountered only post-medieval deposits. A great depth of alluvium is known to underlie the present ground surface and it is likely that, where earlier deposits exist, they remain deeply buried within the alluvial material. (M.Leah comments, CCH13313)