Monument record 8484 - Evidence of Roman Buildings, a Robbed Wall and Demolition Rubble, South of the Amphitheatre, Trident House

During the excavation of an extensive series of trial trenches carried out in advance of proposed redevelopment of the Dee House in 1993, evidence of a number of features of Roman date, located to the south of the amphitheatre, was recorded (1). In Trench 35, near the southwest corner of Trident House, overlying the natural sand was a deposit that contained sandstone fragments, cobbles, roof tile, plaster and mortar, in addition to an amount of charcoal (1). The relatively large amount of roof tile, within a deposit that could be characterised as having an obvious rubble nature, indicates strongly that this represents the demolition of a building in the immediate vicinity. An identical deposit was found in nearby Trench 36, where the layer was seen to overly a cut, vertically sided linear feature, aligned north – south, seen to contain an eastern course of faced sandstone blocks not bonded by mortar. This was interpreted as a largely robbed out wall (1). Due to the limited size of the trial trench, this feature could not be traced further. The finds recovered from both areas of demolition rubble suggest a first to second century date (1).

<1> Lancaster University Archaeological Unit, 1993, Dee House Chester, Cheshire (Client Report). SCH6185.