Monument record 719/0/7 - Condate - Old Zion Chapel Site, western fort ditch and buildings

<1> DOE, 1975, Archaeological Excavations 1974, p.38 (Book). SCH335.

Excavations at the site of the old Zion Chapel in Beeston Street, revealed traces of an early 2nd C rectangular building, post holes & pits & 2nd C pottery.

<2> County Historic Environment Record, 1973-1985, Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin, Vol 3, p.53-54, Dent J S, 1975 (Journal/Periodical). SCH565.

The site of the old Zion Chapel was examined first by trial trench and subsequently by area stripping with a JCB. Stratigraphy had been destroyed by ploughing and recent disturbance in connection with the chapel. Only features cutting the natural sand and clay survived. The area appears to have been outside the auxiliary fort which existed to the north‐east.
Four timber slots containing pottery of the first half of the 2nd century formed three sides of a rectangle, enclosing an area of at least 16 x 18 metres, with an internal partition parallel to the long axis. The alignment was not that of the fort, nor that of the Roman road to Chester. Associated with this phase were several pits lying both within and without the enclosure. Two more pits and a series of post‐holes containing 2nd century pottery appeared to be later than the timber slots. These were succeeded by a ditch, running at right angles to the Chester road, which had been re‐cut four times before it was filled in prior to the building of the chapel in the 19th century

<3> Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1970-Present, Britannia, Vol 6, p.242, Wilson D R, 1975 (Journal/Periodical). SCH445.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ67SE3 (Index). SCH2487.

<6> Jones G D B, 1992, Condate - Roman Northwich: The Last Hurrah (Unpublished Document). SCH3820.

Interprets the buildings recorded at the Zion Chapel site as probable barrack blocks with a parallel alignment to those at the Bowling Green site.

<7> G.D.B. Jones, 1990, Condate: The Last Hurrah? Notice of Pleasant Street Excavation (Written Communication). SCH9559.

Following the excavations in 1983/5, it is now possible to interpret the rectangular, timber building cut by a 3.5m ditch, recorded at the Zion chapel site, as a timber structure of the first phase fort cut away by the outer ditch of the reduced fort. This establishes the southward extent of the auxiliary fort at least as far as the southern end of the Zion Chapel.

<8> University of Salford (Centre for Applied Archaeology), 2016, Rediscovering Roman Northwich. Phase 1: Assessment of the Archaeological Archive, p.11, Also trench plan Fig 44 (Report). SCH8149.

Zion Chapel, Beeston Street, excavated in 1974 by the Northwich Archaeological Group.
Two trenches: a large triangular‐shaped area excavation and a smaller linear evaluation trench to the north. These located a reducing fort ditch that truncated the foundations for earlier timber buildings.