Monument record 11520 - Late Nineteenth Century Building, City Place, Chester

<1> L-P Archaeology, 2021, Archaeological Excavation Report: City Place, Chester, R4513 (Client Report). SCH9048.

A large building is depicted on the OS First Edition map of 1873, but has been demolished by the 1899 OS map. Given that it lies immediately to the south of the Chester to Crewe railway, it may have been a store or workshop constructed/used by the railway. The building partly overlay an earlier trapezoidal building depicted on the 1848 Tithe Map (see CHER 11519).

In 2020, foundations of the building were partially uncovered during an archaeological evaluation, prior to development of the site. Walls [12], [21] and [06] appear to represent the eastern, northern and southern walls respectively. Wall [09] represented an internal compartment within the building. The limit of excavation and modern truncation resulted in a restricted view of the structure, and its true extent was never established. A ceramic and clinker rich deposit (10) was located within the building. A test pit was dug through the deposit revealing a dark waterlogged silt (18) below deposit (10) this waterlogged silt was 1.4m deep. The layer of silt represented the local geology, and indicated the area was at one time swampy.