Many thanks to professional visual effects and 3-D graphics modeller and independent researcher Julian Baum for a really fascinating presentation about new research into the River Dee.

One of Julian Baum’s beautiful reconstructions of Deva and its outer buildings in the mid 3rd Century, based on data from archaeological excavations, showing the Roman town in the context of the river and the widening estuary beyond.

The talk focused on how the Dee’s formation, archaeology and several historic maps have raised a number of questions about the Roman river.  Julian made it very clear that the presentation would consist of a number of hypothetical scenarios based on observable features, none of which can yet be fully supported by the available data.  He and his fellow investigators Rod Hobbs and Peter France have been compiling their data for the last six years, and have produced a 17,000 word paper that has been sent out to experts on Roman stonework and hydraulic engineering for consideration.  As they continue to assemble responses to their proposals, the team are also looking for opportunities to work with other specialists to extract more data from the field.  So, accepting that these ideas need more data to test the hypotheses presented today, what are the questions being asked?

The presentation followed the formation of a new research group, which met in June for the first time and included specialists in a number of relevant fields.  A great many questions were asked at that meeting, but the two overarching research questions are as follows:

1) What do we know about the geology and geomorphology of the Dee valley in the Chester area? Although multiple glaciations impacted the underlying geology of Britain, it was the impact of the last glaciation that is of most interest for the second question.

2) What do we know about Chester and the nearby archaeology, from the prehistoric to early Medieval periods, with particular focus, initially, on the Roman period?

Julian Baum’s presentation then went on to introduce the geology and glacial history of the Dee valley before going on to describe three key archaeological questions.

The Chester weir

First, how old is Chester’s remarkable weir?  Traditionally it has been dated  to the Norman period when the notorious Hugh d’Avranches, better known as Hugh Lupus, began to introduce substantial architectural and civil engineering works to develop a strong economic, religious and social foundation for Chester.  There can be no doubt that Hugh Lupus undertook works on the weir.  What is less certain is if he was the first to establish a weir here.  The proposal by Julian Baum, Rod Hobbs and Peter France, just an intriguing theory at this stage, is that the weir may have been a Roman innovation, mirroring hydraulic works elsewhere in the empire, required to raise the level of the river upstream to enable the vast barges carrying essential building materials from Holt.  The initial round of research described in the presentation has produced considerable quantities of data about the river bed, about post-glacial sea levels and tidal information, as well as looking at all the available archaeological data published to date.  Divers have been consulted and the river boat captains have provided invaluable information about their own experiences with the river depth today, as well as seasonal variations in the navigability of the river.  As the presentation emphasized, much more research is required to test this proposal.  An academic paper has been written by the three researchers and is currently being circulated amongst specialist in the field, who have all expressed an interest in assessing the hypothesis.

The Braun map of 1571

The second question concerns two 16^th century maps of the Roodee that show that the north western edge was an almost straight line. How can this straight line be explained?  Building on earlier archaeological discoveries the same researchers propose that this edge may have marked the position of a very long Roman timber jetty.  The line of wall usually identified as the old Roman quay near the modern HQ building at the east of the Roodee has been widely discredited, so the question of where the Roman quay was located remains open.  This proposal makes a great deal of sense, but it too needs testing, and Julian Baum proposed a number of ways in which this could be done using specialist equipment and taking advantage of the upcoming building works at the Roodee.  An interesting corollary to the proposal is that if there was indeed a jetty there, supported on presumably vast timbers, and of a width to enable wheeled vehicles and horses to reach ships moored up along its length, its collapse would have created a major disruption to river flow, and could have had a considerable impact on the silting of the river.

Chester amphitheatre

The third question concerns the archaeology of Chester and its environs prior to the arrival of the Romans.  Iron Age remains were found during the amphitheatre excavations of the 1980s, and there are other indications that there was a healthy Iron Age presence in the area before (and when) the Romans arrived.  This data needs to be collated before it can be assessed, and this is another aim of the research group.

All findings will be made available online on a dedicated website that is currently being built.  The website address will be made available as soon as it is launched.

With many thanks to Julian Baum and other team members, who were present on the day, for such a fascinating presentation.