Monument record 10390 - Post-Dissolution Use of Land West of Dominican Friary Church Building

Excavations to the west of the church building on the site of the Dominican friary between 1976 and 1979 (ECH 2850) demonstrated that this part of the precinct had been subject to a complex construction history during the medieval period. Following the stone building represented by CHER 10317/11, and after the church building (CHER 10317/2) was no longer used for its original purpose (Dissolution), there ceased to be any functional distinction between the church structure and the area that lay west of it (as there had been in the past).

The surface inside the precinct wall (CHER 10317/10) was re-laid, but with an east – west square-cut gully that traversed the debris of former the precinct wall. A stone building (Structure 12) was built, and had substantial wall foundations 0.8m wide. The unfinished foundations of the Phase V church were cut into to create to rectangular pits with a gully in between; the excavators suggested some industrial activities may have been taking place there. The demolition of the precinct wall and cutting of a drainage gully may signify the division of the land into new properties, and the alterations to the existing foundations implied some industry.

<1> multiple authors, 1982, Excavation Reports and Sites Observed, 8/36-38 Ward S 1982 (Article in Journal). SCH5808.

<2> The Society for Medieval Archaeology, 1957-Present, Medieval Archaeology, Youngs S M Clark J & Barry T 1982 26/174 (Journal/Periodical). SCH2131.

<3> Ward, S. W., 1990, Excavations at Chester: The Lesser Medieval Religious Houses - Sites Investigated, 1964-83 (Grosvenor Museum Archaeological Excavation & Survey Reports) (Monograph). SCH1193.