Moxy Hotel, Chester, Cheshire - Post-excavation Assessment

Wessex Archaeology

Wessex Archaeology were commissioned to undertake a programme of archaeological mitigation, monitoring and reporting on land located off Boughton Lane, Chester, CH3 5AJ, centred on NGR 341400, 366600.

A series of Romano-British boundary ditches and gullies were aligned perpendicularly and parallel to the Roman road situated to the south of the site leading east from the fort of Deva (Chester).

Environmental samples contained cereal grains, suggesting arable cultivation. Hammerscale was retrieved from ditch 1056 although this was the only evidence for industrial activity from the site and the context was also contaminated with intrusive medieval pottery. Although residual medieval pottery was recovered (around 1% of the pottery assemblage), no features of medieval date were identified. In the medieval period the site probably formed part of the agricultural hinterland of Chester.

The Romano-British features were sealed by layers of buried soil (primarily 1065 and 1066), one of which (1065) could be readily identified by a distinctive olive green colour. These soils contained artefacts of a variety of dates, including Romano-British, medieval and 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century. It is probable that these buried soils are analogous to those identified on the adjacent Boughton Centre site, where they were identified as Romano-British.

Ditches (eg, 1067) and sandstone walls (eg, 1068) contemporary with the post-medieval gardens were aligned north to south on the same axis as earlier Romano-British features, although (with one perhaps coincidental exception: 154 and 1058) the post-medieval boundaries did not have direct Romano-British antecedents. These boundaries divided the site into strips with a width of approximately 13 m (2.5 perches) leading back from the Boughton road frontage to the south.

In the late-19th century, cartographic evidence indicates that the site was developed as a series of terraces of dwellings. The arrangement of these terraces was influenced by existing boundaries, such as the slightly curvilinear boundary defined by wall 1068. The terraces were built in a single phase with identical building techniques and materials (handmade red brick and lime mortar). Victoria Terrace comprised slightly higher-status dwellings with bay windows and greater length. The other terraces were of uniform design. Outhouses were arranged in pairs in small yards at the rear of the dwellings. Preservation was typically limited to a few courses of brick foundation, however in some locales the ground floor surface survived.

Archaeological preservation was variable and had been impacted by the development of the 19thcentury terraces and primarily by the construction of a school in the 1970s. The pottery assemblage is of local and regional significance and requires further work to realize its potential.