Source/Archive record SCH8591 - Boughton Retail Centre, Chester, 2012-2013: A Nineteenth-Century Tannery and Other Discoveries

Article summarising the result of a progamme of archaeological evaluation undertaken in 2012-13 for land at Boughton Retail Centre in advance of re-development. Work undertaken comprised a desk-based assessment, watching brief, evaluation and strip, map and record excavation. The site lies ot the east of the Roman fortress and medieval city. The evaluation undertaken revealed part of an early nineteenth century tannery in the form of timber-lined tanning pits and other structures connected by lengths of bored timber piping. A small number of earlier ditches , at least one probably Roman, were also recorded. Cartographic evidence suggests that in the sixteenth century the site was used to hold possible tenter frames but subsequently consisted of gardens behind the street frontage until the tannery was built. The tannery appears to have been short lived, being replaced by warehouses and then a candle factory by the 1850s. By 1875 the site was occupied by terraced housing, the remains of which were also recorded.