Monument record 14153 - Natural Depression or Quarry Pit and Refuse Dump, Oddfellows Arms, Chester

<1> Aeon Archaeology, 2017, Oddfellows Arms, 64 Frodsham Street, Chester, Cheshire: Archaeological Watching Brief, R4100 (Client Report). SCH8368.

In 2017 an archaeological watching brief was undertaken during the repair and rebuild of a former cart lodge located to the rear of the grade II listed building, Oddfellows Arms, 64 Frodsham Street. It revealed that the cart lodge was originally built on a topographical depression, possibly a quarry pit, that had subsequently been infilled with night-soil and refuse material from the medieval and post medieval periods.

The Oddfellows finds assemblage comprised the following range of artefacts: a single fragment of late medieval pottery; 6 fragments of medieval floor tile, 67 sherds of post-medieval pottery, 19 clay tobacco pipe bowls, 22 clay tobacco pipe, 7 animal bones and 3 Oyster shells. The finds span approximately a 600 year period between the later medieval period through to the 19th century. Although unstratified and near a pub, the decorated medieval floor tiles nonetheless provide examples of designs previously recorded at religious houses elsewhere in Cheshire. The majority of the post medieval finds are typical for a dig located in an urban context however the density of finds is testament to the level of activity associated with a tavern in a large town.