York Historic Environment Record

Excavation within a sewer trench recorded the via decumana, its latest phase with a stone lined drain on its north-eastern side, sealed by late Roman levels and sub-Roman dark earth. The sewer trench was located at the south-eastern end of Chapter House Street at a point where it was thought to overlie the block of land occupied by the legionary commander’s house rather than the via decumana. The natural clay which occurred at 12.50m OD was, however, succeeded by 0.70m of gravel road metalling. This was probably the via decumana continuing further to the south-west-than expected (INTERIM 1996). Chapter House Street presumably had medieval, if not Anglo-Scandinavian, origins, but as it has been located in something of a backwater for much of its life, it is not entirely surprising that there was no build up of street make-up equivalent to that found at Goodramgate. If Chapter House Street is typical of the other streets close to Roman lines, such as Stonegate and Petergate, it can be shown that there is unlikely to have been any continuity of use of Roman streets in the fortress into the post-Roman period. NMR sources: Britannia : a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies inc. consolidated index for volumes 1-25 (1970-1994) Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 417 28/1997 York Archaeological Trust Marwood R/ 1996/ Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief on a Sewer |Repair Adjacent to 1 Chapter House Street, York/ 1996.412