Monument record 15959 - Post Roman dark soil deposit, Union Terrace

<1> Salford Archaeology (part of Centre for Applied Archaeology), 2024, Land at Union Terrace, Chester: Archaeological Evaluation Report, R4761 (Client Report). SCH9595.

The remains of walls and a brick floor forming a cellar, also the floor of an adjacent room, were excavated in 2024 north of Union Terrace road (see CHER 15958). Pre-dating the cellar was a deposit of relict soil which overlay the natural substrate. The deposit comprised a sticky, dark greenish to greyish brown clay (layer 103), surviving to a maximum thickness of 0.86m; it was completely sterile, yielding no artefactual evidence or anthropogenic inclusions. It is possible that layer (103) represents a similar deposit to the much thicker layer revealed during investigations at the Bus Interchange (see above: Dodd, et al. 2020, 64). An obvious contrast is the lack of artefactual material from the Union Terrace site. However, given the layer’s stratigraphic position, it is reasonable to suggest it may have formed over a similarly protracted period of time. The composition of the deposit suggest it could have formed as relict soil horizon in the post-Roman period. The deposit clearly predates the construction of properties along Union Terrace and Sydney Place in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, respectively and probably represent remnants of buried soil, which continued to form until cultivation within the site ceased.