Archaeologists have moved onto an historic site where a 550-bed student complex will be built in time for the start of the 2017 university academic year.
Excavation trenches have been dug at Linenhall car park which is owned by Chester Race Company whose stables were relocated from there onto the main site just a few years ago.
A joint venture between the Race Company and London-based Stephenson Development (Southern) Holdings Ltd will lead to a large accommodation scheme comprising 143 studio flats and 59 shared living apartments.
The development of the Linenhall site will be only its fifth known use in nearly 2,000 years.
Originally part of the Roman baths complex, the site then formed part of the Franciscan Greyfriars monastery. The Chronicle understands remains of walls from the cloisters of the monastery have been discovered by archaeologists hired by the Stephenson group.
In the 18th century, the site became home to the city’s Linen Hall. This was built in 1778 by Irish linen merchants as a depot containing many shops in a spacious area from which their cloth was distributed by wagon and pack horse throughout the country.
After the linen trade declined, the building functioned as a cheese store and market, trading in the world-renowned Cheshire cheese. It was said to have been a sleepy and quiet place except during the Cheese Fairs, when in a few hours thousands of pounds could change hands.
The cheese market features in the Victorian ‘Bradshaw’s Railway Handbook’, by George Bradshaw, made famous in Michael Portillo’s BBC TV series Great British Railway Journeys.
Bradshaw wrote: “The Cheese Market is in the Old Linen Hall. The cheeses weigh from 60 to 160lbs and are highly coloured; to make them keep; the whey is entirely pressed out.”
The Linenhall building closed at the beginning of the 20th century when the land was purchased by Chester Racecourse. In 2009 the stables were demolished, deemed to be of no special architectural merit, and the site is currently in temporary use as a surface car park.
Planning consent for the huge student scheme was granted in December 2013 after final approval was given by then Secretary of State Eric Pickles who decided not to ‘call in’ the huge application which rises to six storeys on the ring road side, opposite the Crowne Plaza hotel.
The project has proved controversial with neighbouring residents and Cheshire West and Chester Council leader Cllr Samantha Dixon who, when in opposition, said ‘family homes’ were needed not student rooms.
