Chalmers' Orchard, Newcastle Road, Chester-le-Street, County Durham
NZ 2745 51755; Aaron Goode; evaluation; May 2005; CLS 05
An archaeological evaluation was commissioned on land off Newcastle Road, Chester-le-Street, by CgMs Consulting on behalf of McCarthy and Stone (Developments) Limited ahead of a proposed residential development.
Although the site lies to the north of the Cong Burn and 0.5km north of the Roman fort at Chester-le-Street, it lies on the present day Newcastle Road which probably overlies the north-south aligned Roman road which led from Chester-le-Street to Newcastle. A previous archaeological desk-based assessment highlighted the potential for prehistoric and Roman activity at the site, particularly in light of recent archaeological excavations c. 0.6km to the north. There, a multi-period site was encountered, predominantly comprising prehistoric activity but also with evidence of Roman settlement. The 1st edition Ordnance Survey map shows the site as part of an orchard and in more recent times the site was known to have been used by the Territorial Army for training exercises, probably including digging trenches. At the time of the evaluation, the site was occupied by a
large detached house (Chalmers' Orchard) and its gardens, set on a south-facing slope overlooking the town.
Three trenches were investigated in the rear garden of the property. An east-west aligned linear feature in Trench 1, in the northern portion of the site, produced Roman pottery, along with fragments of daub. The feature may have delimited a parcel of land to the east of the Roman road and broadly suggested Roman settlement activity in the vicinity. The pottery assemblage is consistent with Roman military consumption (as at a fort), or consumption derived from or associated with a Roman military supply chain (as with a vicus or roadside settlement on a major road in a military zone). The date of the assemblage is of some significance given that the known Roman fort and vicus are conventionally dated from AD 175. Fragments from two samian vessels date to c. AD 120-140 and c. AD 120-150, i.e. Hadrianic and Hadrianic-early Antonine. The assemblage as a whole is
likely to have been deposited in the years before or around the mid 2nd century AD, and hence prior to the establishment of the fort, and suggests the presence of occupation or significant activity in the area at this time.
Evidence for medieval agricultural use of the land was also encountered at the site. A plough furrow, which yielded pottery dating from the 13th-14th century, was recorded, as well as developed soils of medieval and post-medieval origin.
The findings of the evaluation led to a phase of further work, comprising an open area excavation in the spring of 2006.
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