Students develop new skills while uncovering the past

ARCHAEOLOGY students from the University of Chester are uncovering the city's past and developing their practical skills in Grosvenor Park with excavation training provided by local professional archaeologists.

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Together they are hoping the dig at Grosvenor Park, that continues until Friday, May 23, will this year reveal new information about the Roman history of the park and a medieval and 16th-century building destroyed in the English Civil War.

As well as gaining valuable work experience, the second-year archaeology students will help to discover more about the past of this historic area of Chester.

The annual excavation is run by West Cheshire Museums and is a partnership project between Cheshire West and Chester Council and archaeologists from the University of Chester's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The excavation project began in 2007 with the aim of learning more about the area surrounding Chester's Roman amphitheatre and the important Church of St John the Baptist, which was founded in the Saxon period, re-built as a Norman cathedral and converted to a parish church in the 16th century.

Archaeologists want to discover how the position and ruins of the amphitheatre, as well as the influence of the church, impacted on the later use and development of the surrounding area.