Monument record 8335 - Roman Granary 2, Praetentura west, Deva Legionary Fortress

<1> Petch, D F and F H Thompson, 1959, Excavations in Commonhall Street, P33-60 (Article in Journal). SCH6338.

Archaeological investigations in 1954 and 1956 recorded evidence of three granaries on the west side of the fortress adjacent to the West Gate with space for a possible fourth granary, although no trace of one was recorded. The present area is bounded to the north by Watergate Street (via Principalis), Old Hall Place to the east (tribune’s houses), Commonhall Street to the south (barrack blocks) and Weaver Street to the west (intervallum road). The investigations were carried out in advance of the redevelopment of the area in preparation for the new print works for the Cheshire and North Wales Newspaper Co. Ltd. Permission was granted to examine three cellars with ten trenches excavated. Further excavations in 1956 were carried out prior to the construction of the First Spiritualist Church involving the examination of a further cellar and the excavation of five more trenches.

The evidence for Granary 2 was perhaps the most substantial with traces of external wall foundations, buttresses and an internal sleeper wall on an east-west alignment in Cellars I& II. Cellar IV in 1956 also recorded a section of an internal sleeper wall while evidence of further external and internal walls were also recorded in trenches 1, 7, 8, 12 and 13. Trench 7 recorded the south west corner buttress of the granary. During subsequent observations of the building works, further evidence of walls were recorded in the area.

Trench 7 also recorded traces of a wall un-connected with the construction of the granary itself that appeared to block off the alley way between the granaries. The wall was approximately 50cm wide standing on a foundation 75cm deep
Each granary appeared to be approximately 48.5m in length and while granaries 1 and 3 were 13.7m wide, granary 2 was 13.4m wide. They were separated by a distance of 4.2m.

The external walls comprised a foundation of sandstone rubble and pebble set in rock cut foundation trenches, the walls themselves appeared to be a uniform 1.01m thick with 1m square buttresses regularly placed at 2m intervals.
The evidence recorded from the excavations indicated at least seven internal sleeper walls approximately 52cm thick spaced approximately 90cm apart except between the external walls and the first sleeper walls where the gap was slightly larger.

The evidence from the excavations indicate a construction date in the early second century (i.e. not before 102 AD). Given the substantial nature of their original build, it is likely that only minimal repair work was carried out in the Roman period before their eventual demolition in the late third or early fourth century.

<2> Thompson, F.H., 1964, A History of Cheshire. Volume Two: Roman Cheshire (Book). SCH2862.

<3> Grosvenor Museum, 1988, Grosvenor Museum Excavation section: Current Activities & Upcoming Sites, p37-39 (Unpublished Report). SCH6282.

<4> Harris, B.E. (ed), 1987, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume I, P145 (Book). SCH3556.

<5> Gaimster D, Margeson S & Barry T, 1989, Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1988, p128-9 (Article in Journal). SCH5630.

<6> Mason, D. J. P., 2001, Roman Chester: City of the Eagles, p64-66 (Book). SCH6164.

<7> L-P Archaeology, 2015, Weaver Street, Chester. Archaeological Evaluation Report (Client Report). SCH7991.

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 2015 on land off Weaver Street, Chester in advance of a residential housing development. Previous research has demonstrated that the site lies within the Roman fortress Deva. Furthermore, excavation in the 1950s at this location, revealed substantial stone wall remains of three granary buildings, also occupation deposits, including Saxon waste pits and medieval structures dating to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The 2015 evaluation comprised four trenches measuring 2m by 5m. Trenches 1 and 2 exposed the remains of east-west aligned sandstone blocks, bonded with a lime mortar and set on an opus signum base. These walls are thought to form part of the granary 2 identified in the 1950s excavations. The northern-most wall in trench 1 coincides with the north external wall of the granary; it measured 1.1m in diameter and 1.6m in height, which correlates to the dimensions recorded in the 1950s. The two walls in the south part of the trench, along with the two walls identified in trench 2, are thought to represent the internal sleepers of granary 2, used to support the granary floor. Again the dimensions correlate to those recorded in the 1950s, measuring 0.7m in diameter with a spacing of circa 0.8m. The area between the walls in trench 1 was filled with large quantities of Roman roof tile fragments, this was also recorded in the 1950s. It has been suggested that rather than representing the collapse of the granary roof during demolition, this deposit might instead represent a phase of reconstruction and alteration. Tile stamps recovered in the 1950s suggest the final version of the roof may date to circa AD 250, whilst the coin evidence suggests a slightly later date of AD 270 and later. No coins were retrieved during the 2015 watching brief but a number of tegulae, dated to AD 160-260, were recovered. Also several fragments of stone floor slab are thought to represent the internal floor surface of the granary, which has not previously been identified. In trench 4 a number of micaceous stone roof slates with nail holes were recovered from a granary demolition deposit. It has been suggested that the shift from ceramic roof tile to stone roofing slate is a trend seen across the fort at Chester during the late third/fourth century, so may indicate a slightly later date for the end of the granary buildings.

<8> L-P Archaeology, 2016, Archaeological Watching Brief Report: Weaver Street Chester (Client Report). SCH8377.

Following on from the evaluation trenches undertaken in 2015 an archaeological watching brief was undertaken in April 2016 during groundworks associated with the residential development on land at Weaver Street. The previous evaluation work enabled a re-design of the scheme of pile foundations to least impact on the buried Roman remains. However, in the event, the groundworks did not penetrate post medieval made ground deposits, thus leaving deeper, earlier deposits intact.