Monument record 10623 - Wall Overlying Post Medieval Dumped Material, Watergate

What was reported as a post medieval wall was identified during a watching brief at the north end of Nicholas St. Mews, at Watergate St. between 2009 and 2012 (1). The investigations were carried out during the installation of gas pipelines and involved a large number of trenches across the city. In Trench 105, a complex sequence of post medieval remains were identified, the latest of these a wall (this monument), built over a deposit of dumped material (CHER 10624). Constructed of a foundation layer of roughly cut red sandstone blocks, with at least three courses of unfrogged bricks surviving, this section of the wall was 1.6m long, aligned east – west, 0.98m wide, and 0.48m high. The excavators suggested that it may have been part of a quayside building. No finds were recovered in direct association with the wall, but it overlay a deposit of dumped material containing seventeenth to eighteenth century finds (1).

<1> Balfour Beatty, 2012, Chester City Centre, Cheshire Gas Improvement Works, R3321 (Client Report). SCH6784.