Following the nine small trenches in the Roman amphitheatre in 2000, the 2001 excavations were designed to examine questions about the amphitheatre as well as the later history of the site. Three trenches were excavated with the permission of English Heritage and run as a training excavation for students of archaeology from Chester College of Higher Education and the University of Liverpool. In addition, local volunteers, including members of the Chester Archaeological Society, were involved
Trench X was located in the East Entrance to the amphitheatre, continuing the excavation started in Trench V in 2000. Finds showed that our understanding of the chronology of the site is correct; the first pebble floor was laid around AD 100 and by 130, rubbish had begun to accumulate on it and continued to do so until the end of the third century. Shortly before AD 300, a new mortar floor was laid in the entrance.
Although the historical sequence was exactly as expected, the details of the superstructure revealed in this trench were not. The pebble surface had been thought to cover only the central part of the entrance, but we were able to show that the entire width was paved. We also found that the late third-century refurbishment had entailed a thorough redesign of the entrance, with a colonnade three columns deep inserted at the point where the passage emerged from under the stone seating. At the same time, the door into the entrance was narrowed. The colonnade was a decorative feature, intended to be seen from the seating opposite. |
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These details show that the masonry walls reducing the width of the East Entrance are not part of the Roman structure. Thought by the 1960s excavators to be the base for an official box (or tribunal) over the entrance, it cannot have been such. Indeed, there are no parallels for this form of masonry in any Roman building in Chester. The closest parallels for this structure are the seventh-century crypts in Ripon Cathedral (Yorks.) and Hexham Abbey (Northd.). Given that St John’s Church is traditionally said to have been founded in 689, it is possible that this masonry belongs not to the Roman structure but to the Saxon church of St John. This is an extremely significant discovery and one that changes our entire perception of this part of the amphitheatre.