Monument record 15318 - Excavated Nineteenth Century Field Boundary, The Bishops' Blue Coat High School, Chester

<1> Aeon Archaeology, 2021, The Bishops' Blue Coat High School, Vaughans Lane, Chester, CH3 5XF: Archaeological Strip, Map and Sample and Archaeological Watcing Brief, R4521 (Client Report). SCH9063.

An archaeological strip, map and record evaluation, undertaken in 2021 at The Bishops' Blue Coat High School, Vaughans Lane, Chester, encountered a linear ditch. The ditch which was located in the northern extent of the stripped area, was orientated east-west across the site. It measured 16.7m in length by 2.23m in width by 0.46m in depth. The northern side of the ditch had a gradual slope while the southern side was fairly sharp, with a concaved base. The ditch had partially infilled with a soft, light orange-brown silty clay-sand (106) which produced post-medieval ceramic fragments and small sub-rounded pebble inclusions. This fill and then been partially cut through as a recut [108] of the ditch. This recut had a steep and concaved side to the south and more gradual and undulating side to the north, with an undulating base – and measured 1.98m in width by 0.34m in depth. Recut [108] had then been entirely infilled by a soft, light brown-grey sand-silt (109) which produced post-medieval ceramic sherds, glass sherds, and occasional small sized sub-rounded pebbles.

Ditch [106] is shown on the 1849 tithe map of Great Boughton as well as on the first edition six inch County Series Ordnance Survey map of 1871 as a field boundary ditch separating two large enclosed fields to the west of Bachelor’s Lane. The field boundary is shown on subsequent maps and aerial photography until the construction of the school buildings in the late 1990s. The recovered ceramic assemblage would suggest that this former field boundary ditch is no earlier than the post-medieval period and is likely to be of 19th century origin.