Monument record 13006 - Excavated Medieval Oven Bases, Grosvenor Park

<1> L-P Archaeology, 2019, Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project (CAER): Interim Archaeological Excavation Report for 2017, R4442 (Client Report). SCH8888.

A series of excavations have been carried out, over several seasons, on the west side of Grosvenor Park, in partnership with Chester University, as part of the Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research/CAER Project. The project began in 2007 and one of its principle objectives was to locate the remains of Cholmondeley’s Mansion (CHER 11045). It is thought that the house occupied the site of earlier medieval buildings attached to the collegiate church of St John (CHER 11033), including a chapel dedicated to St Anne (CHER 11033/4), and a range of petty canons houses (CHER 11033/11/3). (See source 2)

The 2017 and 2018 excavation seasons recorded, at the western end of Trench IV, a complex of medieval oven bases which appear to be of 13th/14th century date. One of the ovens had an associated stoking pit. The ovens presented indications of in situ firing but little evidence for a specific industrial product; it is therefore likely that they were used for activities such as baking or possibly brewing. Regardless of their use, the ovens lay to the west of what has been interpreted as the eastern boundary ditch of St John’s (CHER 13003), and they would therefore have been within the medieval religious precinct. (see also source 3)

<2> Chester Archaeology, Archaeology in the Park: Grosvenor Park, Chester 2007 (Newsletter). SCH6469.

<3> L-P Archaeology, 2019, Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project (CAER): Interim Archaeological Excavation Report for 2018, R4443 (Client Report). SCH8896.