Monument record 7421 - Iron Age Well, Chester Business Park Excavations

<1> Network Archaeology, 2004, Chester Business Park, MBNA Lakeside, Chester: Archaeological Excavation, Areas F1-10, R14 and R15 (Client Report). SCH6301.

During excavations at the Chester Business Park (MBNA Development) a timber-lined well (Context 1959) was recorded. It was heavily truncated by later remains. Late Iron Age or early Roman pottery was recovered from a buried soil into which the well had been cut, but no pottery was found in the well itself. A large amount of bone, however, was present, including remains of cattle, sheep or goat, and some bone was burned. A large fragment of a quern stone and a number of oak timbers were also recovered

<2> Network Archaeology, 2016, DRAFT: Excavations Of a Late Prehistoric and Romano-British Agricultural Site (Unpublished Report). SCH8071.

Well 1959 was located towards the south western corner of the development area. The shaft of the well was approximately 1.6m in diameter. The well had steeply sloping, irregular sides and an irregular shaped concave base. It must originally have been between 1.5m and 2m deep, but subsequent activity at the site appeared to have caused some alteration and build up of deposits upon the ground surface through which the well was excavated. The well contained three main deposits, as well as preserved wood within the primary fill.

<3> Garner, Dan, 2024, Chester Business Park 2003 A Summary of the Excavation of a Late Prehistoric and Roman Rural Site, vol 94. p 63-97 (Article in Journal). SCH9777.

Period 2: Mid- to late Iron Age. The earliest dated feature on the site was a large waterlogged pit, (1959), interpreted as a well. The primary fill, (2023), produced a radiocarbon date of 410–200 cal bc (Beta 196797) , ie firmly in the pre-Roman Iron Age. Timber recovered from the primary fill was tentatively interpreted by the excavators as the remains of a lining. A notable characteristic of this feature was a total lack of artefactual evidence recovered from the associated fills beyond a single incomplete fragment of quernstone.