Monument record 11494 - Excavated Post Medieval Basement, 3 Nicholas Street Mews, Chester

<1> Earthworks Archaeological Services, 2018, 3 Nicholas Street Mews, Chester, Cheshire: An Archaeological Evaluation, R4227 (Client Report). SCH8556.

Trial trenching in 2016 at 3 Nicholas Street Mews, Chester, revealed that the current property was built over a sandstone-walled basement, of later eighteenth/nineteenth century date. The north-east corner of the basement was exposed within evaluation trench 3, and measured in excess of 0.7m north–south and over 1.5m east–west, extending beyond the confines of the evaluation trench. The basement was circa 0.60m deep and comprised six courses of dressed, red sandstone masonry, some re-used architectural fragments with ovolo mouldings and grey-painted surfaces, also a sandstone flagged floor surface. A ceramic drain pipe was incorporated within the fifth course of masonry to the eastern wall; this may have served as an overflow in case of flooding. The basement structure had been backfilled with loose, crushed lime mortar. To the west, it had been truncated by the brick footings of the current property. Immediately to the north of the basement structure, was a thin deposit (0.10m) of orange sand and crushed red sandstone, which probably represented levelling for a floor contemporary with the basement structure. Additionally, a brick culvert, or cistern, contained within an extensive construction trench, was recorded in evaluation trench 1 (SJ 40272 66092), located to the rear of the property.

The basement was cut into deep soil deposits extending to a depth of circa 2m below ground level and overlying the natural clay. These soil deposits were also recorded in evaluation trench 2 and are dated by finds to the early post-medieval period (sixteenth/seventeenth century). They probably reflect agricultural or garden soils that accumulated following the dissolution of the former Dominican Friary (founded circa 1236) which occupied this area of Chester between the City Walls to the west and Nicholas Street to the east.