Monument record 8301 - Roman Centurion's House (Latera praetorii west) at Princess Street

Archaeological investigations at St Martin’s Fields to the rear of what is now the Forum shopping centre recorded a complete section through a centurial house of a typical form in 1964-5 (No. II in the report). At least six phases of activity could be identified on the site beginning with in the late first century with two phases of timber construction. In around 100 AD the first stone built structure was introduced to the site followed by a second phase of stone construction perhaps as little as 10 years later. This is followed by a period of abandonment or reduced activity characterised elsewhere as the mid second century ‘military hiatus’ period, which in this area appeared to last until the early third century. The final phase of activity from around 220AD onwards is characterised by the demolition of any structural remains and the construction of entirely new buildings however at this site significant post Roman truncation severely limited the survival of archaeological features from this period.

The structural evidence of this primary phases of this building comprised a series of four beam slots and post holes indicating a section across the entire width of the building. Three parallel walls on an east-west alignment comprised the northern external wall (TS3) with two parallel internal walls located 4.85m (TS2) and 6.55m (TS1) to the south of TS3 indicating a narrow central corridor. A single north-south aligned internal wall was also encountered within the space separated by TS2 and TS3. The external beam slot trenches were subsequently replaced by their stone foundation successors indicating the buildings remained much the same size. No trace of internal surfaces were encountered. The second phase of timber construction comprised three walls on a similar alignment to the earlier phase (1).
Evidence of the first two stone phases of construction (c100-120AD) indicated a complete reconstruction but using a broadly similar plan, W4 replaced the north external wall and W2 & W1 replaced the central corridor with W3 representing the north-south internal partition. However again, no significant traces of internal floor surfaces were encountered. (1)

Evidence of late Roman activity in this structure was significantly truncated by post Roman stone robbing and construction activity although robber trenches indicated that much of the earlier plan was reflected in the late Roman design.

Further evidence of Roman activity was recorded during trial evaluations at the former Bowling Green, the excavations carried out by B Flynn of the Grosvenor Museum in 1989 recorded quantities of painted plaster, mortar, crushed sandstone and Roman pottery at a depth of approximately 1.60m below ground level in trench 2 but no structural evidence. Given its location within an area of known barrack blocks, this area was interpreted as a possible Centurion’s house by the excavator. (2)

<1> Chester Archaeology, 1964, Excavation Records for St Martin's Field, Chester (Unpublished Report). SCH6615.

<2> Chester Archaeology, 1989, Masonic Lodge, Hunter Street (Unpublished Report). SCH6614.