Monument record 7423 - Post Roman Activity, Possibly Boundaries, 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) evidence of post-Roman activity (following 7422/1 - 7422/4) has been recorded. Although the bulk of the evidence from the site is form the Romano-British period, there is some evidence for later activity. This included postholes forming east-west oriented fence lines, thought to represent a modern boundary. This postulated fence-lines share a common alignment with the much earlier Romano-British field system, but the importance of this relationship is difficult to determine.

Evidence of medieval activity on the site is entirely lacking. Evidence from the post medieval period is confined to a few sherds of pottery and ceramic land drains , probably dating to the nineteenth century. The latter indicate that the land came back into agricultural use during the late post medieval to early modern period. The topsoil covering the site was stripped, exposing and damaging underlying archaeological remains. Subsoil from other locations was re-deposited on the site, sealing a plough soil remnant, collegial deposits and earlier archaeological remains (1).

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 Network Archaeology, 2016, DRAFT: Excavations Of a Late Prehistoric and Romano-British Agricultural Site (Unpublished Report).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

An east to west oriented gully may have been reinforced with a fence. This was possibly represented by a row of post holes running more or less parallel with the north side of the gully. They are included in this phase on the basis of their spatial relationships with each other and the rest of the field system. However, no dating evidence was retrieved from the gully and only two of the post holes yielded datable finds. Post hole 1580 contained four sherds of modern pottery, and post hole 1594 contained a single fragment of modern window glass. These finds could have been intrusive but if not, they reflect on the dates of the other post-holes and the gully which they follow. If indeed these features originated in the post medieval or modern periods, it is significant that they maintained a field pattern begun in the Roman period or possibly earlier

<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.

Summary of the 2003 excavation published in 2024 speculated that a series of parallel and perpendicular gullies associated with a posthole alignment (previously interpreted as a fence line) could represent a rectangular timber strip building c 25m long east–west x c 10m wide north–south. ( CHER7423/2)