In February 1987 The Canterbury Trust began excavations on the site of the old City Council car park, St Radigunds Street (now Chantry Court) prior to the construction of new housing. The sitecode was STR87.

The site was just within the Roman (and later Medieval) city wall and consisted of five trenches, labelled A, B, C, D 1 and 2. Trench C was dug around the north corner of the surviving precinct wall of the Black Prince's Chantry. This revealed a sequence of post-Roman 'dark-earth' deposits and later garden soils. These overlay 30-40cm of rammed river gravels from the Roman period and also part of a Roman street.

The remaining trenches were dug against the street frontage. The earliest levels revealed evidence of pre-Roman occupation, now below the water table, and included pottery. Features of this period included a field boundary/drainage ditch, quarries and an early trackway.
The earlier layers were sealed by metalling from two Roman streets, forming a junction at the centre of the site. The streets appear to have originated in the early Roman period. Both verges of the main SE/NW road were defined by drains; the ditches on the south side terminated at the intersection of the two roads. Found parallel and adjacent to the north side of the main street were two pits containing the bases of massive timber posts, bedded on large adzed slabs of wood. Although the functon and exact exact association with the road is unclear the position suggests they may have supported a foot bridge or casueway over the road drains.

The road surface itself had been repaired and resurfaced many times. It was thought that the road west of the junction went out of use, posibly during the 3rd century when the city wall was constructed. Traces of timber buildings erected over the road may relate to this phase of activity, perhaps workmens huts. The disused section of road was reinstated, on a slightly different alingment, after the 3rd century, possibly skirting the inside of the city wall and rampart. Gravel appears to have been dumped to the south of the street to counter act the rising water table. A number of pits of 2nd century date were dug through these deposits.

The latest Roman deposits were disturbed and sealed by a dark brown soil, possibly deriving from the rampart of the city wall, which is thought to have been levelled when St Radigund's Street was established, perhaps in the 12th century. Subsequent ploughing and agricultural activity may explain the disturbance of the latest Roman levels and also the wide variety of artefacts of different dates recovered from this deposit.

Rady, J., 1988, St Radigund's Street (Article in serial). SKE30480.