Monument record 8695 - Probable Roman Soil Horizon, Hunter Street

<1> Oxford Archaeology North, 2019, Northgate Redevelopment, Phase 1, Hunter Street, Chester: Archaeological Evaluation Report, R4486 (Client Report). SCH8969.

In 2019, a series of four test pits were excavated in the northern carriageway of Hunter Street, to assess the amount of archaeological disturbance caused by modern service runs beneath the road, to identify the precise positions of these services, and to determine the level, below the modern surface, of any significant archaeology that might have survived. Services were found to have extensively truncated the archaeological remains, however, in Test-pits 02 and 03, a probable Roman soil horizon was identified at 0.96m below ground level.

In Test pit 02, the deposit, a brown-yellow loam, was encountered at the north end of the trench; it contained almst exclusively Roman ceramics. In Test pit 03, similarly, a brown-yellow loam was recorded at the north end of the trench and, again, contained Roman ceramics. In both trenches, the loam was overlain by a dark soil up to 0.75m thick, containing finds of post medieval pottery, glass, building material and animal bones. This post medieval soil deposit was also present in Test-pit 04, but was not excavated beyond it, consequently, it seem highly likely that the dark soil in Test-pit 4 also overlay significant archaeology, though at a greater depth below the surface than further west (in excess of 1.15m at this locale).