The settlement may well have extended across the river into Handbridge, which in 1086 was assessed for tax in carucates rather than the hides normal in CHESHIRE. Carucates occurred elsewhere in the county in association with Scandinavian place-names, and appear to be evidence of Scandinavian settlement from the East of England to Clare.
The Hiberno-Norse community was much involved in coining. As early as the reign of Edward the Elder (899- 924) one of the moneyers in north-western Mercia bore the name Irfara, a Norse nickname meaning 'the Ireland journeyer', and there continued to be a strong Scandinavian and Gaelic element among the names of Chester moneyers, much more pronounced than at other west Mercian mints, throughout the 10th century and beyond. The discovery of an ingot mould in Lower Bridge Street suggests that metals may have been worked near the Hiberno-Norse settlement, perhaps in connexion with the mint. The mint was involved in trade which passed along the Irish Sea routes, though the interpretation of its marked fluctuations in output is far from certain. The mint at Chester seems to have risen to prominence quite suddenly, c. 916-18, the time of Æthelflæd's most notable victories over the Welsh and the Danes. At her death in 918 it was well established, with perhaps 16 moneyers. Under Æthelstan (924-39) at least 25 moneyers worked there, with probably as many as 20 striking at any one time, compared with 10 in London and 7 in Winchester. That represented the zenith of Chester's activity. Thereafter, though still relatively important, the mint lost something of its dominance. In the reigns of Edmund I (939-46) and Eadred (946-55) there were c. 17 moneyers, and in the troubled reign of Eadwig (955-7 in Mercia, 955-9 in Wessex) as few as 11. Under Edgar (957-75) the mint became very active again, and there were c. 20 moneyers working there in 970.
Despite the fluctuations the mint remained of at least regional importance until the early 970s: a Chester moneyer was chosen to strike a coin for the Welsh king Hywel Dda (d. 949 or 950), and the city was a diecutting centre for a region which included at least two other mints, Derby and Tamworth (Staffs.). Chester moneyers were heavily involved in establishing the Derby mint in Æthelstan's reign, and some sharing of moneyers, coin types, and dies among all three centres continued for most of the 10th century. In Edgar's reign before the reform of the coinage Chester sent dies and moneyers to other mints to help with production. Thereafter, however, the mint lost its importance. It took only a modest part in the reform of the coinage in 973, and in the late 10th century output declined steeply and die-cutting ceased entirely. Although there was a recovery in its activities in the early 11th century, it never again rivalled the great centres of London, York, and Winchester.
CHESTER was well placed to take advantage of local traffic along the Dee and, more importantly, long-distance seaborne trade. From the 10th century onwards it developed connexions with Ireland and with Scandinavian settlements all round the Irish Sea. The importance which the Norse of Dublin, for example, attached to the link is apparent in their attempts to set up fortified quaysides, harbours, and navigation points along the north Welsh coast to ease the journey between the two ports. Chester almost certainly contained a sizeable Hiberno-Norse community involved in the Irish trade, located south of the legionary fortress in the quarter next to the early harbour where the clearest evidence for pre-Conquest settlement has been found. Huts excavated in Lower Bridge Street have been interpreted as of the bow-sided type especially associated with Scandinavian sites in England, and what was perhaps the name of a gate in the city walls in that quarter, Clippe Gate, may have derived from the Old Norse personal name Klippr.
The dedications of the two churches in the area, St. Bridget and St. Olave, were also appropriate for a Hiberno-Norse community. St. Olave's cannot have come into being before the mid 11th century, since the dedicatee, the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson, was killed only in 1030; St. Bridget's, however, could well be earlier. The dedication was especially likely to have been favoured by immigrants from Ireland and was used also at West Kirby, in the Scandinavian settlement on Wirral. Moreover, since the medieval parish of St. Bridget's at Chester was in two portions, separated by parts of other parishes, it was perhaps once larger and had been eroded by later foundations. The church was probably the first to serve the Hiberno-Norse in Chester and dated from the period of their settlement in the city.
Archaeological finds have confirmed a Hiberno-Norse presence in Chester. In particular, a brooch with Borre-Jellinge ornament found at Princess Street is identical with a brooch found in Dublin, and must have derived from the same mould. There is evidence, too, for contact with the Isle of Man. Chester has yielded several ring-headed pins of a Hiberno-Norse type very like examples found in Man, and fragments of jewellery from a hoard deposited at Castle Esplanade c. 965 have also been interpreted as similar to material from a hoard found on the island.