Monument record 10000 - Northgate Street, Chester

Northgate Street is one of the four main streets of Chester leading from the Cross in the centre of the city to the Northgate. The northern part of the road may have its origin in the Roman via Decumana however this road clearly only extended as far as the modern Hunter Street with evidence of substantial Roman structures underlying the remaining part of the street indicating the road is largely Saxon or medieval in origin. It is first referred to in Latin as vicus a porta de North usque ad ecclesiam in 1096, later shortened to Northgate by 1304. (1)

Archaeological investigations carried out in the city in 2012 identified traces of former road surface below the present road in trenche 161C, although dating evidence was limited, it was suggested by the excavator that it dated to the post medieval period. (5)

<1> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, vol.V(i) (Book). SCH3228.

<2> Mapping Medieval Chester Project, 2011, Digital Archive of Mapping Medieval Chester website (Digital Archive). SCH6761.

<3> Haswell, George. W, 1907, Notes on Chester Street-names past and present (Northern Section) (Article in Journal). SCH5548.

<4> Brown, W, 1907, Notes on Chester Street-names past and present (Article in Journal). SCH5549.

<5> Balfour Beatty, 2012, Chester City Centre, Cheshire Gas Improvement Works (Client Report). SCH6784.