The History

Minerva's Shrine is a shrine to the Roman goddess Minerva in Edgar's Field, Handbridge, Chester. The shrine dates from the early 2nd century and is carved into the face of a sandstone quarry. It is the only monument of its kind in Western Europe that remains in its original location.

It is protected by a 19th-century stone surround with a hood, which was refurbished in the late 20th century. The carving has weathered over the centuries and has also been damaged by human activity. Next to the shrine is an opening into the rock face which is possibly a natural fissure that has been enlarged and which is known as Edgar's Cave.

The shrine stands beside the route of the old main Roman road into the fortress of Deva from the south. Minerva was the Roman goddess of war, knowledge, and craftsmanship. She is often depicted with her attributes of helmet, shield, breastplate, and spear, but in this instance she is shown in a simplified form, standing in a representation of a temple. A cast of the shrine is kept in the Grosvenor Museum, in Chester.

The Roman Quarry

The rock outcrop bearing the carving and cave are now surrounded by a park. The top of the rock face has been capped with stone setts. The exposed rock face is part of a more extensive quarry which curves around the ground known as Edgar's Field forming a slope with two terraces on the southern and western sides.

Excavations in the early 1920s revealed that the quarry was in use c.100 AD. Soil was imported to cover the quarry floor in the late-second century AD. Roman occupation remains dating from that time on were found on the site. Subsequently stone was quarried from the site again during the Middle Ages.

The sculpted shrine and figure of the goddess would appear to have been carved during the working of the quarry. Evidence of chisel marks from the quarrying are still evident on the side of the rock face today. History informs that the second fortress of Roman Chester was constructed from the local sandstone, which was quarried from Edgar's Field.

A large amount of sandstone was taken and used in the construction of the fortress walls and many other buildings inside. The sandstone "monolith" left behind by excavation in the Roman Quarry shows the characteristic pattern of river-deposited sandstone. The coloured banding is due to a differing iron content in the deposits, which influences the rate at which they erode. The sand and pebbles in this bed come from the slow wearing down of the Variscan Mountains in France, formed when the Iberian/African plate collided with Avalonia, by a river which like the Nile flowed northwards through a desert and then settle.

The Geology

The Chester basin rock system is part of the "Sherwood Sandstone Group" which extends from Devon northwards as far as Armagh in Ireland and Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. The rock in this area consists mainly of Triassic (~240 million years old) "New Red Sandstone". This is the most common sandstone in Cheshire and can be see in the Chester area and present here in Edgar's Field.

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock formed by the cementing together of grains of sand. The usual cementing material in sandstone is calcium carbonate, iron oxides, or silica and the hardness of sandstone varies according to the character of the cementing material; quartz sandstones cemented with quartz are the hardest.

Sandstones are commonly gray, buff, red, or brown, although green and some other colours can be found dependant on the location. The formation of sandstone involves two principal stages. First, a layer or layers of sand accumulates as the result of sedimentation, either from water (as in a stream, lake, or sea) or from air (as in a desert). Typically, sedimentation occurs by the sand settling out from suspension; i.e., ceasing to be rolled or bounced along the bottom of a body of water or ground surface (e.g., in a desert or erg). Finally, once it has accumulated, the sand becomes sandstone when it is compacted by the pressure of overlying deposits and cemented by the precipitation of minerals within the pore spaces between sand grains.

The EarthCache

In order to log a find you are required to complete the following questions and tasks and send your answers to us via the email address on our profile or via the use of the message centre.

Any finds logged without completing the tasks and sending us their answers will have their log deleted.

1. At the listed coordinates examine the rock to the left of the shrine, explain what you see and what the colour of the rock is.

2. Now you have examined the rock to the left and read through the information above please explain how the layering was formed.

3. Having examined the rock explain its texture and how the texture of rock face differs from the hood that surrounds the shrine.

4. Explain what mineral gives the rock its distinctive colour?

5. What period does the rock date from?

6. Explain which rock type it is that you have examined and why, is it sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous?

7. Go to the right of the of the shrine and around to the other face of the rock that faces the river, examine the rock face and describe what markings you see on the rock face.

8. In order to evidence that you have visited the location a photo of you/GPS at the shrine must be posted on the find log.

A photo on your found log is now a logging requirement (EarthCache guidelines) anyone logging a find without a photo will have the log deleted.

Please do not add any answers to your find log.

Please respect the environment at this location and do not remove or damage anything.

Hope you enjoy this location and happy caching.

This EarthCache has been placed here with the kind permission of Historic England.