Monument record 8403/1/1 - Excavated sandstone walls of courtyard building, Insula XXI, further evidence

<1> Oxford Archaeology North, 2022, Chester Northgate Redevelopment: Phase 1 Post-Excavation Assessment Report, R4690 (Client Report). SCH9431.

Two related sandstone walls (features 503, 504), were recorded in 2020-1 during the excavation of the lower foundation pile mat for the market and cinema, on the south side of Hunter Street, as part of the Northgate redevelopment scheme. The most substantial of these was 0.77m wide and extended north/south and is thought to represent the west wall of the courtyard building (see CHER 8403/1; OAN Building 806) erected during the early third century. No internal deposits contemporary with the walls were found, nor had any third- to fourth-century levels survived on the north/south street to the west of the wall (see CHER 8414/1), these having presumably been removed by excavation during archaeological excavations undertaken in the late 1970s and 1980s (Strickland 1982) leaving only earlier Roman period deposits (see CHER 8721).

Additionally, immediately east of this area, a fragment of a north/south-aligned sandstone wall (612), 0.6m wide, was exposed during excavation of a new manhole on the south side of Hunter Street. Spatially, this must have formed part of Building 806, perhaps part of an internal partition wall.

<2> Strickland, T.J., 1982, Chester (Article in Journal). SCH6299.