Source/Archive record SCH8896 - Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project (CAER): Interim Archaeological Excavation Report for 2018

The Cheshire West and Chester Historic Environment Team in collaboration with the University of Chester’s History and Archaeology Department undertook a twelfth season of research excavation in Grosvenor Park between 3rd and 31st May 2017. This comprised the continued excavation of two trenches (Trenches IV and VIII). The work falls within the parameters of The Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research (CAER) Project, which is a multi phase project currently spanning 12 years fieldwork. Trench IV revealed a further section of the metalled surface interpreted as a minor Roman road first identified in 2007. It is aligned east-west and runs towards the eastern entrance of the Roman amphitheatre. The date for the use of this road is implied by material which had become pressed in to the surface including pottery of late second to mid-third century date. To the north of the road surface evidence for earlier occupation in the form of a large refuse pit was identified and dated to the early/mid-second century on the basis of the pottery recovered from the fills. At the western end of Trench IV, additional elements of a complex of medieval oven bases, first identified in 2017, were recorded. The ovens presented indications of in situ firing but little evidence for a specific industrial product; it is therefore likely that they were used for activities such as baking or possibly brewing. Regardless of their use, the ovens lay to the west of what has been interpreted as the eastern boundary ditch of St John’s, and they would therefore have been within the medieval religious precinct. They appear to be of 13th/14th century date. Investigation to the rear of the medieval retaining wall in Trench IV (thought to represent a later modification to the eastern boundary of St John’s precinct) identified a large stone filled pit which produced pottery of 14th-15th century date. A substantial linear ditch aligned on a roughly north-south axis was identified at the western end of Trench IV. This feature had apparently removed a section of the east-west aligned Roman road. The upper fills of the ditch mainly produced Roman pottery and CBM which is likely to be residual; however, pottery dated to the medieval period (c.1250) was recovered from the uppermost fill. At the eastern end of Trench VIII a brick and sandstone structure identified in 2017 was investigated further; this appeared to form a long rectangular base which had subsided at its eastern end. A series of underlying deposits thought to be associated with the backfilling of a late medieval ditch were identified and recorded. At the western end of Trench VIII a series of structural remains in the form of a robbed out wall, a possible beam slot and an area of hard-standing formed from sandstone, brick and mortar are likely to be associated with part of the Cholmondeley’s Mansion building complex.