Middle Reaches

We have divided the story of the River Dee into three parts:


 * Upper Reaches from the source of the river through Wales;


 * Middle Reaches from the Welsh borders to Chester - THIS ARTICLE;


 * Lower Reaches below Chester to Hilbre Islands and the sea;



=The Middle Reaches of the Dee=

As this geological map below shows, the surface rock type changes rapidly as the River Dee exits the Vale of Llangollen. In rapid succession the Carboniferous limestone (blue) is succeeded by millstone grit (grey), coal measures (black) and then Permian sandstone.



In terms of geological history, the river at this point passes the geological boundary marking the "Permian-Triassic Extinction Event", informally known as the "Great Dying". It was the Earth's most severe extinction event (so far), with up to 96 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. This marked the end of the Paleozoic era, the first of the three great divisions of geological time that drew to a close around 250 million years ago.

At the start of the era, all life was confined to bacteria, algae, sponges and a variety of somewhat enigmatic (in evolutionary terms, experimental) forms known collectively as the Ediacaran biota - the latter exhibited a vast range of morphological characteristics in which almost all forms of symmetry were present. A large number of different "body plans" appeared nearly simultaneously at the start of the era - a phenomenon known as the "Cambrian Explosion". In "On the Origin of Species", Charles Darwin considered this sudden appearance of solitary group of trilobites with no apparent antecedents, and absence of other fossils to be "undoubtedly of the gravest nature" among the difficulties in his theory of natural selection. He reasoned that earlier seas had swarmed with living creatures, but that their fossils had not been found due to the imperfections of the fossil record - which is possibly due to the absence of "hard parts" in earlier creatures.

During the late Paleozoic, great forests of primitive plants thrived on land forming great coal beds and both the first large, sophisticated reptiles and the first modern plants (conifers) had developed. Whatever the cause of the mass-extinction, it took about 50 million years for life on land to fully recover its biodiversity. Nothing resembling a coral reef shows up until 10 million years after the Permian extinction, and full recovery of marine life took about 100 million years. In reaching this point in it's journey to the sea the Dee has crossed this 300 million years of geological history and is half-way to the present and half-way to the sea.



Downstream from here, the Cheshire Basin is a fault-bounded "graben" structure which was flooded on several occasions in the Permian and early Triassic periods resulting in the laying down of massive halite (salt) beds. These beds have been mined both by cavern working and hot water brine extraction for over 200 years, although salt had been extracted from springs since iron-age times. Iron-Age Britons probably traded Westmorland stone axe-heads for salt. Some of the Cheshire meres result from collapse following the removal of salt, but others (possibly most) are of glacial origin having developed in natural depressions in the glacial drift left by receding ice sheets. The "New Red Sandstone" was laid down in the Triassic, and so in the Vale of Llangollen alone the River Dee crosses almost 100 million years of geological history. Rising up from the Cheshire plain are a number of small sandstone ridges and scarps formed from the Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone, such as the northern end of an outcrop which runs through central Cheshire between Malpas and Tarporley (the Peckforton Hills), while in the east the sandstone gives rise to Alderley Edge. The sandstone is cemented together with the ferric iron oxide haematite (Fe2O3), evidence for a hot, arid desert and this iron gives the rocks the eponymous red hue. Two different mechanisms led to the production of the rocks which underlie the Cheshire plains:
 * The smoothness and roundness of the pebbles within the Chester Pebble Beds indicates that they were transported by prototypic river Dee: a large and powerful braided-river system, probably on the margin of an arid, desert mountain range.
 * Elsewhere, the rocks represent wind-blown dust that settled in shallow salt-lakes and sun-baked mudflats on the extensive flood plain.

Erbistock and Overton
At Erbistock, near the famous 17th century Boat Inn is are the remnants of a hand-operated chain ferry which once crossed the river Dee at this point. Historian Alfred Neobard Palmer suggested that the name of the village derives from "Erbin's stoke" meaning Erbin's stockaded ford.

Overton-on-Dee is seven miles (11 km) from Wrexham and exactly twenty-two miles from both Chester and Shrewsbury. The churchyard of St Mary the Virgin dominates the high street and is famous for twenty-one very ancient yew trees. The yew trees are traditionally one of the "Seven Wonders of Wales" as referenced in the following verse:


 * Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,
 * Snowdon's mountain without its people,
 * Overton yew trees, St Winefride wells,
 * Llangollen bridge, and Gresford bells.

At 1,500 to 2,000 years old, the oldest tree predates the church, whose earliest stonework is probably Norman. In 1992 the village celebrated the 700th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to Overton by Edward I in 1292 with a royal visit from the Elizabeth II who planted a new yew tree. Overton is situated in an exclave of the traditional county of Flintshire known as Maelor Saesneg (English: "English Maelor"), sometimes called "Flintshire Detached", and was the administrative centre of that part of the administrative county between 1889 and 1974. Strangely, the community (parish) and county boundary between it and Erbistock (in historic Denbighshire) is, in part, on the west side of the river due to oxbow formation in the river.



Charles Darwin often stayed with his sister at her home at The Brow, Overton (see the Feb 2009 "Overton Oracle"), and no doubt regaled his young nieces and nephews with tales of his famous voyage on the Beagle. Charles was a keen walker, perhaps examining Overton’s flora and fauna. One diary entry from 1838 has him staying on July 12, shortly before he proposed to Emma Wedgwood - her grandfather Josiah Wedgwood had made his fortune in pottery, and Charles Darwin was her first cousin; their shared grandparents were Josiah Wedgwood and his wife Sarah.

Apart from the sandstone of the Lower Triassic there are few rocks in western Cheshire from the Mesozoic era which followed the era in which the rocks of the upper reaches of the river were laid down. The extinction of nearly all animal species at the end of the Permian period allowed for the evolution of many new lifeforms and animal life during the Mesozoic was dominated by large reptiles that first evolved a few million years after the Permian extinction: dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and their aquatic cousins such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs. This middle part of geological history came to a shattering close with the Cretaceous–Tertiary Extinction Event, caused by one or more catastrophies such as massive asteroid impacts or increased volcanic activity. The following age, sometimes called the Tertiary was to become the Age of Mammals, ending with the most recent Ice Age, at the end of the Pliocene epoch. It is in the most recent era, the Quaternary, that the local geology picks up again.

The rocks throughout western Cheshire are overlain by Quaternary glacial deposits, largely consisting of till (or boulder clay), with local deposits of silt, peat, sand and gravels. It is across this flat plain that the river now makes its way, changing in character from the tempestuous Welsh river to a mostly placid English one that meanders about in no real hurry. While the river still has far to go is already only 30 feet above sea level and along the flood plain from the weirs at Erbistock to the weir at Chester the River Dee often has the character of a long narrow lake. The British Geological Survey has conducted intensive studies of the hydro-geology of the Cheshire Plain. Buried channels detected in the vicinity of the Mersey and Dee estuaries may represent former pre-glacial courses of these rivers (that is routes followed by the rivers before the last, Devensian, glaciation of the area about 18,000 years ago). After the Late Devensian glacier which invaded the area from the Irish Sea had wasted from the plain, the rivers were able, once again, to exit into Liverpool Bay, cutting their courses during the last 15,000 years or so through the vast spreads of glacial debris and sediment which had accumulated beneath and around the margins of the ice-sheet. A Neanderthal Child (Anthropological Institute, University of Zürich) A Neanderthal Child (Anthropological Institute, University of Zürich)

It is not clear when "mankind" first settled on the River Dee, but hominid remains dating back over 200,000 years have been found at Bontnewydd in Denbighshire. These were not modern human remains, but the remains of our close cousins, the Neanderthal's. Subsequent periods of glaciation would have driven hominids from Britain (or killed them off) many times. Perhaps the Neanderthals came back several times, only to be displaced by the more "modern" humans of today. It has often been suggested that the Neanderthals were the origin of tales concerning "fairy folk", gnomes, elves, and all the other humanoid "others" that crop up over and over again in mythology, especially in the mythology of the dark-haired Celtic races. Reconstructions seem to indicate that the Neanderthals were a fair-haired (or red-haired) people and their DNA will be fully sequenced soon. There have even been rather alarming suggestions that in the not-too-distant future it may be possible to recreate Neanderthals by a modified cloning process. There are however serious problems with the "Neanderthals as Welsh fairy-folk" theory, because the most recent Neanderthal sites anywhere seem to be from no later than 30,000 years ago and, as we shall see later, humans in Wales cannot be descended from ancestors who lived there more than 10,000 BC.

Rough waters
full spate - the river quickens through a deep wooded vale; somewhat further; Erbistock; going in circles; Overton - waves at Darwin; easy paddling; more earthworks; more horsepower.

Bangor-on-Dee
The Welsh Ice Cap and the Irish Sea Glacier The Welsh Ice Cap and the Irish Sea Glacier

Glaciation has been a rare event in Earth's history, and before the current ice age cycle, which began 2 to 3 million years ago, Earth's climate was typically mild and uniform for long periods of time. There are many theories for the origin of Ice Ages. The consensus is that several factors are important:

atmospheric composition (the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane); changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun known as "Milankovitch cycles" (and possibly the Sun's orbit around the galaxy); the motion of tectonic plates resulting in changes in the relative location and amount of continental and oceanic crust on the Earth's surface, which could affect wind and ocean currents; variations in solar output; the orbital dynamics of the Earth-Moon system; and "Nuclear winter" caused by the impact of relatively large meteorites, and volcanism including eruptions of "super-volcanoes".

Ice ages were never good for mankind, but 70,000 years ago things were to get a whole lot worse. The human line had produced a variety of species, including Homo habilis, H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis, H. sapiens (us), and possibly already by that time H. floresiensis, often called "the Hobbit". Then, according to the "Toba catastrophe theory", the consequences of a massive volcanic eruption drove the world's human population to the very brink of extinction when the Toba caldera in Indonesia underwent an eruption of category 8 (or "mega-colossal") on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. Possibly only 2000 humans survived the fall-out of acid rain and "nuclear winter" deepening the already existing ice age. Almost all survivors probably lived in Africa. It was this tiny population, expanding out of Africa that was to become the population of the entire modern world.

During one of the last cold phases of the present Ice Age, a huge glacier (referred to as "The Irish Sea Glacier") flowed southwards from its source areas in Scotland and Ireland and across the Isle of Man, Anglesey and Pembrokeshire - about 700 km from its source areas to its southernmost margin. It is sometimes referred to as an “ice stream” since it appears to have been constrained not by ice-free land areas but by highlands which were themselves buried beneath ice. At the time of its maximum extent the glacier extended all the way to the coasts of Somerset and Cornwall, along the south coast of Ireland, and even reached the Scilly Isles. To the east, the glacier was bounded by the Welsh Ice Cap, sitting 2.5 kilometers thick on top of Snowdonia. Part of this Ice Cap comprised the "Bala Ice Stream", which is believed to have followed path of the Dee.

Bangor on Dee is mentioned by Edmund Spenser (1552–99) in The Faerie Queen:


 * Whiles thus thy Britons do in languour pine, Proud Etheldred shall from the North arise, Seruing th'ambitious will of Augustine, And passing Dee with hardy enterprise, Shall backe repulse the valiaunt Brockwell twise, And Bangor with massacred Martyrs fill

A monastery was established at Bangor in about AD 560 by Saint Dunod and was an important religious centre in the 5th and 6th centuries. When Augustine demanded of Dionoth, then Abbot of Bangor-on-Dee, that he acknowledge the authority of the Bishop of Rome the reply of the Briton was a memorable one:


 * "We desire to love all-men, but he whom you call "Pope" is not entitled to style himself the "father of fathers" and the only submission we can render him is that which we owe to every Christian."

Cadvan, Prince of wales (around A.D.610) came up with an even more interesting theological argument when discussing the matter with the Abbot of Bangor on Dee:


 * "All men may hold the same truth, yet no man can hereby be drawn into slavery to another. If the Cymry believed all that Rome believes, that would be as strong a reason for Rome obeying us, as for us to obey Rome. It suffices for us that we obey the Truth. If other men obey the Truth, are they therefore to become subject to us?"

This monastery was destroyed in about AD 616 after Aethelfrith, the King of Northumbria, defeated the Welsh, at the Battle of Chester now thought to have taken place near Heronbridge. Beethoven set the song "The Monks of Bangor's March" (WoO. 155 (26 Walisische Lieder) no. 2 (1809-10)) to music, the original poem having been written by Sir Walter Scott. The exact location of the monastery is unknown and it may well be that the meandering of the Dee has wiped all trace of the site from the face of the land. The River Dee between Holt and Worthenbury is unique in its combination of being; one of the most tortuous stretches of meandering channel on a major British river, and it's crossing the fluvial-tidal transition in a location where the interaction of river and tidal processes can be observed in a relatively unmodified setting. River Dee meander below Dogkennel Farm, Shocklach (Philip Ingram) River Dee meander below Dogkennel Farm, Shocklach (Philip Ingram)

Something of the post-glacial vegetation history of Maelor Saesneg is known from studies of abandoned river meanders of the River Dee in the area between Worthenbury and Holt which suggests that the natural vegetation, possibly from the later prehistoric period, was of open oak and hazel woodland on the drier surrounding areas with areas of damper alder or willow carr woodland adjacent to the floodplain or in adjacent valleys, with sporadic occurrences of lime, elm and holly. Arable and pastoral agriculture became important in the land surrounding the Dee floodplain. Cereal cultivation included possibly wheat and barley but also oats, the latter being typical of Romano-British and later periods. Hemp pollen also identified, probably cultivated for fibre used in rope making, probably before the beginning of the 18th century. Both Welsh and English place-names indicate the presence of more extensive natural woodland in the past, especially along the southern and north-eastern boundaries of the area. Many of the sources are relatively late, but some most probably date back to the early medieval period, in perhaps the 7th or 8th centuries. Anglo-Saxon place-names which probably indicate clearings in the woodland include that of Lightwood Green from Old English leoht 'bright, light', and the name Penley derived from the name Penda and Old English leah 'wood or clearing', which is also present locally in the Welsh form Llannerch Panna, 'Penda's clearing'. The place-name Musley, to the west of Lightwood, possibly also contains the element leah. The Domesday survey of 1086 records an extensive area of woodland at Bettisfield, three leagues by two leagues across wide, an area of almost 7 kilometres by 5 kilometres across (a league generally being reckoned to be about one and a half miles). Woodland is also signified in both elements of the Welsh name Bangor Is-y-coed, bangor meaning 'wattle enclosure' with the suffix is-coed; below the wood. Writing of Bangor Is-y-coed, Samuel Lewis states:


 * The adjacent scenery in many places is beautiful and richly picturesque, the noble sweeps of the Dee being frequently overshadowed by thick hanging woods, which fringe its elevated bank.

His description of Overton Bridge introduces contemporary perceptions of land-use and potential: '


 * The surrounding scenery is beautifully picturesque, being composed of a great diversity of features in pleasing combination and agreeable contrast. From a ridge near the village is seen, on one side, an extensive plain of verdant meadows, enlivened by the windings of the River Dee, skirted in front by fertile and richly wooded slopes.

Thomas Pennant, in the late 18th century, makes reference to the remnants of ancient woodland to be seen in the Threapwood area.

Bangor to Holt
Turn O'the Dee; Bangor Bridges; Meandering about; River terraces; More meandering; Going nowhere slowly; ..another motte - and the border follows where the river used to flow; Floodland - ten miles to Chester by Roman road, a bit further on the water; Crewe; Holt at last.

Holt & Farndon
Holt Bridge (Richard Vernon) Holt Bridge (Richard Vernon) Lake Avernus (Richard Vernon) Lake Avernus (Richard Vernon)

Farndon (map) lies on the English border with Wales. Edward the Elder is said to have died here. Across the bridge, which marks the border, is the Welsh village of Holt. It was here, in 1643, that 'grenados' were used during the 'English' Civil War (against the Welsh). This was possibly the first use of grenades in the UK. Also in the Civil War, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, wishing to send King Charles notice of his having crossed the Dee at Farndon Bridge and pressing on the Parliamentarians, bade Colonel Shakerley convey the message as speedily as possible. The latter, to avoid the long circuit by the bridge, galloped to the Dee, took a wooden tub used for slaughtering swine, employed "a batting-staff, used for batting of coarse linen," as an oar, put his servant in the tub, his horse swimming by him, and once across left the tub in charge of the man while he rode to the king, delivered his message and returned to cross over the same way.

Thomas Pennant, in his book Tours in Wales (1874), (citing a MS communicated by the Reverend Mr Price, Keeper of the Bodleian Library), states that the nephews of Defydd ap Gruffydd were ‘drowned in the River Dee’ at Holt Bridge by their guardians, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, and Roger Mortimer the younger, on a journey from Chester to Dinas Brân. This, and perhaps a double drowning recorded on graves at Farndon (St Chad's) churchyard, possibly led to various legends about the 'Bridge of Screams'. Some comments on these legends can be found here. Holt castle showing bedding in the underlying sandstone (Peter Crane) Holt castle showing bedding in the underlying sandstone (Peter Crane)

A painting of Holt Bridge (before 1762) by Richard Wilson, is not topologically accurate and appears compositionally related to his better known Lake Avernus (1765) an allegorical depiction of the entrance to the underworld. Holt has a ruined stone castle, built in pentagonal form with a tower at each corner, by John de Warenne, who was granted lands by Edward I of England following the defeat of the Welsh in 1282. The castle was once a possession of Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond, but was in ruins by the 17th century; all that remains today are the remnants of the walls of the inner keep with a doorway and a staircase. The remainder was floated on barges down the River Dee after the sieges of the English Civil War to construct Eaton Hall. Some historians believe that Farndon was the location of the first ever competitive horse race with riders, in a local field on the banks of the River Dee. Also by the riverbank is a fine example of the Chester pebble beds - now a "Site of Special Scientific Interest".

The soils of Cheshire are one of it's most recent geological features. Brown sands occur sporadically across the Cheshire Plain, with denser concentrations on the Mid Cheshire Ridge, mostly on moderately sloping ground and occasionally on valley sides and close to outcrops of Triassic sandstone. It accounts for 12.6% of the area of the county, mostly under mixed arable (principally barley, potatoes and wheat) and grassland, with some market gardening and horticulture. Its main drawback is that it suffers excessively from drought. Typical (argillic) stagnogleys are the most widespread soils in Cheshire. They cover a third of the county, forming flat to gently undulating topography, with stunted hedgerow oaks a typical feature of landscapes formed by these soils. These soils are ideal for grassland and have been a major factor in the development of the dairy industry in the county since the fifteenth century. There is also a little market gardening and arable is restricted to the more favourable areas. Surface wetness is a major problem with the exploitation of this soil type. Alluvial gley soils, while common along the Dee are overall of minor importance in Cheshire. The relief produced by these soils is almost flat and subject to periodic flooding. They account for only ~2% of the area of the county and are under permanent grass, often used as meadowland.

Hereabouts dwelt the Wreocensæte (Old English: Wreocensǣte, Wocensǣte - their name approximates to "Wrekin-dwellers") and may be the origin of Wrexham. They were to become the most northerly of the three Mercian subject kingdoms facing Wales, with the Magonsæte to their south, and the Hwicce furthest south. Their kingdom may have covered much of modern Cheshire and Shropshire and is roughly equivalent to that of the pre-Roman and Romano-British Cornovii whose principal cities during Roman times were given by Ptolemy as Deva (Chester) and Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter). Maps showing the range of Wreocensæte settlement include Chester and the Wirral. "West Chester" is mentioned by Richard of Cirencester as being a settlement of the "Carnabii" (probably the Cornovii).

Poulton and Aldford
The Irish Sea 15000 years ago - ice is shown in red The Irish Sea 15000 years ago - ice is shown in red

By 15,000 years ago the ice of the last cold period of the present ice age was once more was in retreat. Studies by K. Lambeck et al. show that the sea level was much lower than that of the present day (much water being piled up in the ice). However the Ice Age had one last deadly card to play. It is named the "Younger Dryas" after an alpine flower which still can be found in the Welsh mountains. It is also known as "the Big Freeze" and was a geologically brief (approximately 1,300 ± 70 years) cold period that occurred around 10,000 BC. Over a decade or so, mean annual temperature in Britain dropped to approximately 5°C. Humans were probably driven out of Britain (or died out) once again. Glaciers returned to the highlands of Wales. Theories about its origin have included the failure of the Gulf Stream, which brings warmer water to Britain from the Caribbean. When it ended, the humans who recolonised Britain became the stone-age ancestors of it's modern population.

On this journey down the Dee we have met with five extinction events:

At the head of the river the Cambrian-Ordovician event (488 million years ago) when volcanoes, some of which sit close to the source of the Dee killed off the Brachiopods and gave birth to Welsh gold. At the Ordovician-Silurian event (450 million years ago) which gave birth to the Caledonian mountains and Welsh slate. The late Devonian extinction (364 million years ago) of which more can be read here and which led to the deposition of Welsh Coal. The end of the Triassic (200 million years ago) was involved in the formation of the red sandstone that is so characteristic of Chester and the mineral deposits that were to become the basis of the the brick industry. Most famous of all, the K-T event (65.5 million years ago) which ended the "Age of the Dinosaurs", but which left few marks on the geology of the Dee.

Now we meet with the sixth, the so called Holocene Extinction - a massive change in the ecology of the planet in part due to the Ice Age cycle but to a large part wrought by a single species.

Poulton (map) lies on the western bank of the Dee and is home to the Poulton Project, a landscape archaeology research project jointly established between Liverpool University and Chester Archaeology. The starting point was the investigation of a medieval chapel site, but the discovery of flints at Poulton along with large quantities of Roman material, occasional Saxon ware and numerous burials has extended the historical scope of the project back at least as far as the 7th millenium BC. In the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic ("Old Stone Age") hunting was based on big game animals, such as mammoth, bison, rhinoceros and lion. By the late Upper Palaeolithic, when evidence for occupation of Cheshire becomes clearer, these species were extinct and the dominant food animals included reindeer and wild horses.

The first traces of mankind at Poulton are small, "microlithic", tools and weapons for hunting and fishing that were used by nomadic hunter-gatherers in the Mesolithic ("Middle Stone Age") from the end of the Lower Dryas to c.6500 years ago. In the early part of the period, it is believed that the Mersey still flowed through the "Deva Spillway" (which runs north of Chester Zoo and is followed by the Canal) to enter the Dee estuary between Blacon and Chester. The sea level around 9000 years ago was still around 20m (66ft) lower than it is today and extensive areas of what is now the sea off the North Wirral would have been low lying wetlands - although whether there was a late-existing land-bridge between Britain and Ireland is still hotly disputed. The warmer climate changed the Arctic environment to one of pine, birch, and alder forest; this less open landscape was less conducive to the large herds of reindeer and wild horse that had previously sustained humans. Those animals were replaced in people's diets by pig and less social animals such as elk, red deer, roe deer, wild boar and aurochs (wild cattle). Part of the badly damaged skull of an auroch was found on the Roodee in Chester, buried in river silt, although it is not clear if the animal had been killed by hunters or simply died close to the riverbank.

In the Neolithic ("New Stone Age") forest clearance and agriculture arrived and a Timber Circle ('wood henge') was constructed at Poulton. From the Bronze Age (around 4000 years ago), Poulton has a cemetery group of barrows and evidence of cremations as well as some coarse pottery. Towards the end of the Bronze Age the ring-ditch of the ritual enclosure was ceremonially closed. The people at this time may well have spoken a language which was the ancestor of modern Welsh. As this site argues, the peoples of the east of England may already have been "Anglo-Saxons". In Britain, the Bronze Age is considered to have ended around 700 BC with the introduction of iron.

The remains of Aldford Castle consisting of earthworks and a few fragments of stone can be found immediately to the north of Aldford church on the eastn bank of the Dee. It was founded by Richard de Aldford as a motte and bailey castle in the 12th century overlooking a ford across the River Dee. The iron bridge at Aldford was built in 1824 by William Hazledine for the 1st Marquis of Westminster. It is built in cast iron and has yellow sandstone abutments forming a single arch measuring 50 metres. It has cast iron railings and double gates at the crown of the bridge. On the opposite bank, Eaton Hall is the country house of the Duke of Westminster. The hall is set within an estate covering an area of about 4,400 hectares within which is parkland of about 500 hectares and formal gardens of around 20 hectares.

Back in England
A country seat - a wave from one of the many chalets on the twisting riverbank; Poulton- passing the site of Woodhenge; Aldford - "the Blob" is a Norman motte; Ducks and Dukes - his Grace the Duck harasses the boat; Crook of Dee; Eccleston; Under the bypass; Heronbridge;

Heronbridge
The riverside footpath at Heronbridge. The Roman site is behind the photographer. (by "Row17") The riverside footpath at Heronbridge. The Roman site is behind the photographer. (by "Row17")

While the people of the north and east of Britain may have always been the "Welsh" and the people of the south and west always the "Saxon", there were some changes of ownership of land. The River Dee marks a significant boundary of the "Saxon" incursions and is believed to have been the site of the "Battle of Chester":


 * ...And her Æðelfrið lædde his færde to Legercyestre, & ðar ofslóh unrím Walena (..and here Aethelfrith led his fyrd to the Castle of the Legion and there slew uncountable Welsh)



The Roman and later site at Heronbridge stands on the west bank of the River Dee two kilometres south of Chester city centre, between the river and the line of Watling Street. The elongated oval site is visible in the satellite photograph above. Founded in the late first century, the site was continuously occupied until at least AD 350. It has been extensively investigated by the Chester Archaeological Society. At Heronbridge, it is worth pausing to consider how the threads of time come together. In geological terms the Dee has crossed 300 million years of history and the surface rocks here are those formed from arid, wind blown sands shortly after a mass extinction that came close to wiping life from the face of the earth. In terms of human evolution this was probably an iron-age crossing of the river, and possibly a stopping point en route to the ritual site at Poulton. Later it became an outlying Roman settlement of Chester and later still the probable site of a major battle between the Brythonic people of Wales and the Saxon "invaders", each with their own church and language. Even the name of the place is heavy with allusion: "Cern" means "horn" or "bumb, boss" in Old Irish and is etymologically related to similar words carn in Welsh and Breton, and is the probable derivation of "Kernow" (Cornwall), meaning horn'[of land]'. Possibly derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *krno- which also gave the Latin cornu and Germanic *hurnaz (from which English "horn"). The same Gaulish root is found in the names of tribes such as the Carnutes, Carni, and Carnonacae - and, of course, the "Cornovii". "Herne the hunter" echo's the call of that horn. Gravestone of Capt J. Wardle? Gravestone of Capt J. Wardle?

The Roman invasion of Britain marks the formal end of the British Iron Age, although some believe that the Iron Age still continues (unless recently superseded by the age of the "Bakelite People", or the "Paleosilicic"). By AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion of Britain, Great Britain had already been the target of planned or actual Roman invasions, starting with Julius Caesar's failed expeditions in 55 and 54 BC. Augustus prepared invasions in 34 BC, 27 BC and 25 BC, but these were called off. "Barking mad" Caligula planned a campaign against the British in 40, but its execution was bizarre, he had the troops gather sea shells, referring to them as "plunder from the ocean, due to the Capitol and the Palace" - then he went home. Finally, in 43, Claudius mounted an invasion under Aulus Plautius, leading four legions, totalling about 20,000 men, plus about the same number of auxiliaries. The legions included Legio II Augusta and Legio XX Valeria Victrix, both of which were later to be associated with Chester. Following the successful suppression of Boudicca, a number of new Roman governors continued the conquest by edging north. Cartimandua was forced to ask for Roman aid following a rebellion by her husband Venutius. Quintus Petillius Cerialis took his legions from Lincoln as far as York and defeated Venutius near Stanwick around 70. This resulted in the already Romanised Brigantes and Parisii tribes being further assimilated into the empire proper. Sextus Julius Frontinus was sent into Roman Britain in 74 AD to succeed Cerialis as governor. He subdued the Silures and other "hostile" tribes of Wales, establishing a new base at Caerleon for Legio II Augusta and a network of smaller forts fifteen to twenty kilometres apart for his auxiliary units. During his tenure, he probably established the fort at Pumsaint in west Wales, largely to exploit the gold deposits at Dolaucothi. He retired in 78 AD, and later he was appointed water commissioner in Rome. The new governor was the famous Gnaeus Julius Agricola. He finished off the Ordovices in North Wales and then took his troops north along the Pennines, building roads as he went. He built a fortress at Chester and employed tactics of terrorising each local tribe before offering terms.

Just where "Bottoms Lane" joins the riverside path is a stone fairly professionally inscribed with the very faded words "Capt J Wardle 1710". Whether this is a gravestone or some other type of memorial is unknown. There is higher ground ahead and the river will soon swing into the series of turns (map) it makes at Chester. But that rising bank ahead has grim associations. It was the site of Chester's place of execution, both by burning or hanging (see: St Giles Cemetery). The following tale about the gallows features the passing river and is found in Joseph Hemmingway's History of the City of Chester - written in 1831 (a link to the full text can be found on the Chester Books page): The view from Gallows Hill The view from Gallows Hill


 * About the centre of this elegant group of buildings, thirty years ago, stood that memento mori to the passing traveller, vulgarly called the gallows, where many of our unfortunate fellow creatures have forfeited their lives to the violated laws of their country. A short time prior to this period, this terrific engine of death had its station exactly on the opposite side of the road, which, on account of its elevated situation, received the appellation of Gallows Hill, which, by a precipitate descent, and without an enclosure, went down to the Dee. There is an incident connected with this place of execution worthy of recording. In May, 1801, as three malefactors, convicted of burglary at the spring assizes, were conveying to execution in a cart, one of them, named Clare, when opposite the gallows, and just when the vehicle was turning, gave a sudden spring, and threw himself upon the top of the precipice descending to the river, and jumped, rolled, and tumbled along till he was precipitated into it. The weight of his irons sunk him to the bottom, and before he could be brought up, life was entirely extinct. Although the unfortunate fellow thus evaded the letter of his sentence, in escaping being hanged by the neck till he was dead, yet the finisher of the law was unwilling to forego his official duty, and the dead body of the criminal was tied up after his breath had departed. The most afflictive part of the tragedy was, that the two poor men who were in a like condemnation, were kept in a state of awful suspense until the dead carcase of the drowned man was tied up beside them.

The river is again mentioned by Edmund Spenser (1552–99) in Marriage of the Thames and Medway:


 * "..and following Dee, which Britons long ygone, did call Divine that did by Chester tend."

Almost Home
Boathouses; Home in sight Brew time! - time for a cuppa at the Blue Moon.

=The Dee at Chester=

At Chester, the river passes around the Earl's Eye meadow, a protected green space between the Boughton and Handbridge suburbs of the city. The river is crossed by a ferry from Boughton to the meadows, and a little further downstream, by two bridges. The first is the Queen's Park Suspension Bridge, which forms the only exclusively pedestrian footway across the river in Chester. The second is the Old Dee Bridge, a road bridge and by far the oldest bridge in Chester, being built in about 1387 on the site of a series of wooden predecessors which dated originally from the Roman period. The river bank between these two bridges is known as The Groves and contains many features of interest.

Above the Old Dee Bridge, the river has a weir, which was built by Hugh of Avranches to supply power to his corn mills. Throughout the centuries, the weir has been used to power corn, fulling, needle, snuff and flint mills. The same weir was used as part of a hydroelectric scheme in 1911 with the help of a small generator building which is still visible today, used as a pumping station for water since 1951. However. the first water pumping station here was set up in 1600 by John Tyrer who pumped water to a square tower built on the city's Bridgegate. It was destroyed in the Civil War but an octagonal tower built in 1690 for the same purpose lasted until the gate was replaced with an arch in the mid-18th century. Other than by use of a ferry, or low-water fords, the weir was the lowest crossing point on the river prior to the construction of bridges. For this reason Chester has been an important military site since at least Roman times and Chester Castle was in part built to defend this important river crossing. On the weir is a fish pass and fish counting station to monitor the numbers of salmon ascending the river. A residual flow of at least 364 Ml/d is maintained over Chester Weir in all but the most testing of droughts, safeguarding the passage of migratory fish and limiting the ingress of saline water over the weir during high tides. Details of the current flow can be found here. Across the bridge from the castle is the Minerva shrine.

A little further downstream stands the Grosvenor Bridge (designed by architect Thomas Harrison of Chester, which was opened in 1833 to ease congestion on the Old Dee Bridge. This bridge was opened by Princess Victoria five years before she became Queen. A view of the river prior to the bridge can be seen in a painting by John Glover. The painting also shows St John's prior to its collapse (1881). N.B the artist emigrated to Tasmania in 1821.

The other side of the Grosvenor Bridge is the Roodee, Chester's race course and the oldest course in the country. This used to be the site of Chester's Roman harbour until, aided by the building of the weir, the River Dee silted up to become the size it is today. The only curiously remaining reminder of this site's maritime past is a stone cross which stands in the middle of the Roodee which exhibits the marks of water ripples. To the end of the Roodee the river is crossed again by a second bridge, now carrying the Chester–Holyhead railway line, before leaving Chester. It was the scene of one of the first serious railway accidents in the country, the Dee Bridge disaster.

Chester as a Port
The natural and extensive anchorage which once existed on the site of the Roodee may well have influenced the Roman choice to build a fort here and it is possible that a flotilla of the "Classis Britannica" was stationed here. One of Chester's Roman tombstones is that of a newly promoted centurion who "naufragio perit" (perished in a shipwreck). In case the body was recovered, there is a space on the tombstone for the words "Lies Here" to be inserted - but they were never added. A sandstone "quay" at the Roodee is often identified as part of the "Roman docks" although this is now thought to be a later Roman defensive structure, with the actual dock being a wooden platform at then end of a large pier-like structure extending from the "quay" out across the tidal mudflats that then occupied the site of the present day racecourse.

Anglo-Saxon sources imply that naval forces were stationed here in the tenth and eleventh centuries. By the late 14th century the main anchorage of the city had become the "Portpool" which appears to have been roughly in the area of the present day Crane Wharf. It was described by Leland as "a dock within two bowshots of the northern suburbs". The abbot of Chester, was at one time charged with extracting illegal levies (vadia) from traffic on the road from Portpool to the Northgate - the "Portpool Way". Goods shipped included fish, timber, bark, and coal, but also slate and millstones from as far afield as Ogwen (Caern.) and Anglesey. In the other direction, there was traffic with Cheshire ports such as Frodsham and Runcorn. There was also long-distance trade, above all with Ireland, which by 1237 was a major source of foodstuffs. Irish corn was Chester's speciality, but money could be made in both directions as Ireland lacked the salt necessary for trade in fish and hides. However there were already ominous signs of trouble ahead: in 1377 a report described:


 * "The ruineth state of the river that preventeth ships approaching the City walls of Chester."

After the treaty of Medina del Campo opened up trade with the Iberian peninsula in 1489, Spanish iron, and wine from Portugal, Spain, and Gascony became the basis for a dramatic expansion in Chester's overseas trade, which allowed other Mediterranean commodities to reach the city, and provided new markets for hides and cloth. 48 ships arrived in 1497-8, 60 in 1500-1 and 56 in 1525-6. Chester's trade with Spain focused on the Basque region and involved iron. Besides iron, small quantities of angora, silk and velvet, liquorice, train oil, woad, and Cordovan skins were sometimes carried. Trade with Portugal and Andalusia through the northern Spanish ports brought cork, dyestuffs, figs and raisins, litmus, pepper and herbs, oil, sugar, wax, and sweet wines to Chester from c. 1509. The share of the port's trade controlled by Cestrians fluctuated. Dubliners dominated the Irish Sea trade, and there was strong competition for the rest of the overseas trade from English, Welsh, and Continental merchants. In 1538-42, during Chester's trading zenith, 40-45 per cent of traders were Chester freemen. Most were probably only occasionally involved, and between 1500 and 1550 there were forty or so significant Chester merchants who shipped through the port. Their trade was predominantly in importing iron and wine and exporting hides and cloth, but few were specialists. Even though Richard Grimsditch's main trading effort was with the Continent, for example, he also bought Irish cloth, while Henry Gee in 1532 shared a cargo which included canvas, buckram, glass, honey, black soap, velvet, trenchers, a round table, and a bedcase. However, Liverpool was beginning to develop as a port and this would eventually spell doom for trade in Chester.

Despite all the foreign trade, Chest was primarily the country's natural gateway to Ireland, being served by a fair road to the Midlands and London. At this time the roads of North-Wales to Bangor and Holyhead were poor. Throughout the 16th century Chester was the largest port in north-west England, although it carried only a small proportion of the country's trade, ranking 12th in a list of 18 provincial ports in 1594-5. In 1636 the port of Bristol was rated at £1,000, Chester £26, Liverpool at only £25. Liverpool was still regarded as a creek of the port of Chester. However Chester's ships were small and the port was unfavourably located for trading with England's main markets overseas (except Ireland). Silting of the Dee continued and the port began it's long decline. The extent of this "ruin" can in-part be appreciated by comparing:

this map (1581) and the Braun and Hogenberg map (c.1581) with that of John Speed (1605) - only a quarter century later.

In the former maps the Watertower still stands in the river, whereas in the latter the tower is now on the eastern bank. A later map shows how the Watertower was soon stranded even further from the water.

Some goods did better than others, the tonnage of cheese carried, mainly to London, doubled between 1664 and 1676 and exceeded 1,000 tons in 1683 before dwindling rapidly because of French cheese-piracy after 1689. In 1677 a report by Andrew Yarranton (in his wonderfully entitled book: "England's Improvement by Sea and Land - to out do the Dutch without fighting, to pay debts without money, to set at work all the Poor of England with the growth of their own lands.") stated:


 * "In the month of July 1674 I was prevailed with by a person of honour to survey the river Dee, running by the City of Chester into the Irish Sea, and finding the river choked with the sands, so that a vessel of twenty tons could not come up to that noble city, and the ships forced to lie at Neston (eleven miles below Chester), in a very bad harbour, whereby the ships receive much damage, and trade made so uncertain and chargeable that the trade of Chester is much decayed and gone to Liverpool and that old great city is in danger of being ruined."

Grenville Collins' survey of 1681 - note how far inland the estuary extends. Chester is at the upper right. Grenville Collins' survey of 1681 - note how far inland the estuary extends. Chester is at the upper right.

Yarranton's book was not taken seriously outside of Chester and was ridiculed as "a pamphlet". Yarranton himself was to die in 1684 (aged 65). According to John Aubrey: "Captayne Yarranton dyed at London in March last. The cause of death was a beating and throwne into a tub of water.". In 1681 Captain Grenville Collins, hydrographer to the Navy and the King, carried out a "A New and Exact Survey of the River Dee or Chester Water", having been commissioned in 1676 by Charles II to chart the coasts of Great Britain. His "Great Britain Coastal Pilot" was first published in 1693 and was re-issued several times in the 18th century.

It had become clear that the trade of Chester would never pay for the necessary outlay on the river, however proposals for a privately-funded navigation had been around for some time. In 1693 one Evan Jones brought forward a proposal for "making the river Dee navigable and bringing up ships of a hundred tons burden to the Roodee" at his own expense. This was on the condition that he should have all such lands as should be recovered (upon payment of the usual rent of recovered lands to the crown), one fourth of the clear rents or profits to the companies of the city and that he and his heirs should be entitled to certain duties on coals lime and lime stone. This proposal was rejected. In 1698 Francis Gell made a proposal to the body corporate nearly similar to that of Evan Jones (with some modification of the duties on coals &c and additional security as to the performance of the contract but without any allotment of a fourth part to the city companies). This proposal was also in the first instance rejected but upon being a second time brought forward and a still further security being proposed it was agreed to by the corporation on the 16th of October 1698. In 1700 an Act of Parliament (11 & 12 Wil. III. C. 24, R. A. 11th Apr) "An Act to enable the Mayor and Citizens of Chester to recover and preserve the Navigation of the River Dee", was passed as regards the construction of a channel in the Dee. The preamble of this stated:


 * "That the river was theretofore navigable for ships and vessels of a considerable burthen from the sea up to the City of Chester, but that but by neglect of the said river, and for want of sufficient protection against the flux and reflux of the sea, the navigation to the city was almost lost and destroyed."

George Sorocold was paid £20 to propose improvements to the river in 1706, but, possibly due in part to at frenzied investing elsewhere and then the "credit crunch" following the collapse of the "South Sea Bubble", nothing was then done until 1732 when a further survey was carried out by John Mackay.

The "Canal Scheme"
An arrangement was finally made with Nathaniel Kinderley that in consideration of a depth of 16 feet at high water being provided up to Chester — that was, about 6 feet more than the citizens had previously attempted and failed to obtain — Kinderley should be allowed to reclaim any land in the estuary that he could. To do this he cut a new channel through the marsh for the length of about 10 miles, and made a bank on the estuary side. Through this channel the waters of the river were conveyed, and the old estuary was allowed to silt up. Thus, in course of years, portions of land were to be reclaimed and these could be sold off. There was opposition to the plan, based in the survey of John Mackay. This stated:


 * "Between Chester, Flint, and Parkgate 7,000 or 8,000 acres are proposed to be gained from the sea, by which means no less than two hundred millions of tons of tyde will be prevented from flowing there (twice in 24 hours), which on the reflux acquireth the greater velocity to scour and keep open the Lake and Barr : whether these ill consequences (which must certainly attend the present undertaking) are not more likely to destroy the present navigation in Hyle Lake and the River Dee, rather than recover and preserve a better, is humbly submitted to the Right Honourable the House of Lords".

Despite these objections, an act (6 Geo. II. C. 30, R. A. 13th Jane, 1734) entitled, 'An Act to recover and preserve the Navigation of the River Dee, in the county palatine of Chester,' made Nathaniel Kinderley, his heirs and assigns, appointed undertakers of the navigation, and authorized them to make the river navigable to Wilcox Point, with 16 feet water in moderate spring tides. A major construction programme began to divert the course of the river. Known as the "New Cut", the diversion redirected the Dee through an artificial channel some 10 miles long from the city towards Connah's Quay, and took the river five miles south of its original course. "Priestley's Navigable Rivers and Canals" by Joseph Priestley (1831) notes:


 * "By an instrument dated 9th of April, 1734, these last-mentioned gentlemen, together with Joseph Davis and William Parsons, of London, and ninety others, agree to raise a joint stock of £40,000, in four hundred shares of £100 each, for the purpose of carrying the act into execution; but, as more money was wanted, it was agreed by deed-poll, on the 17th of August, 1736, to advance ten per cent, on the original subscription, and in a little time afterwards twenty per cent.; and it further appears, that the sum of £47,830 was expended in making a new channel for the Dee, and vesting £10,000 in South Sea Annuities, to answer any claim for damages in making the navigation."

In 1737, the "New Cut" was opened and the whole of the works completed before the 25th of March, 1740. The New Cut meant that large tracts of land could be reclaimed - this area is now known as Sealand, where a large retail park and trading estate currently exist. The diversion failed to solve the problem of the Dee silting up, however.

From the 1710s, with the renewal of peace, the trade grew enormously under London cheesemongers who used local cheese factors to collect from all over the Cheshire plain and neighbouring counties. About 1730 there were supposedly 20 ships making three round trips each and carrying over 5,500 tons a year (though no more than 1,500 tons a year was ever registered through the port records). The reopening of the Dee in 1737 did not halt Chester's decline as a port. In 1701 Chester shipowners had 25 vessels, and in the early 1710s the total tonnage, no more than 3,400, was less than half that owned at Liverpool. By the 1730s it had fallen to around 1,650 tons (a tenth of Liverpool's total) and in the late 1750s Chester's 1,000-1,400 tons was scarcely a twentieth of Liverpool's fleet. The linen trade with Ireland reached its peak around the early 1770's.

Priestly, writing in 1831 notes:


 * "The last act relating to this navigation, was obtained principally with a view of confirming certain arrangements relating to the waste and salt marshes adjoining the Dee, and is totally void of any thing of public interest; it is dated 10th June, 1791, and entitled, 'An Act for confirming an Agreement entered into between the Company of Proprietors of the Undertaking for recovering and preserving the Navigation of the River Dee, and certain Lords of Manors and other Persons entitled to Right of Common upon the Wastes and Commons, and the Old Common Salt Marshes, lying on the South Side of the said River, below or to the North-East of Greenfield Gate, in the county of Flint, and an Award made in consequence thereof' Though Chester is a port into which, in the year 1824, twenty-four English and four Foreign ships entered, yet it falls into perfect insignificance, when placed in comparison with the neighbouring port of Liverpool, into which one thousand five hundred and fifty-four English and five hundred and ten Foreign ships entered its capacious docks in the year above-mentioned. And, as a proof of the small revenue derived from this navigation, we need only to observe, that when the act was passed for making the Ellesmere Canal in 1793, a protecting clause was introduced by the Dee Navigation Company, stipulating that if their annual income should ever fall short of £210, the Ellesmere Canal Company should make up the deficiency."

Hemmingway (writing in 1831) records a familiar tale for investors in the scheme:


 * In the early part of this great undertaking many individuals were seriously injured and some probably entirely ruined. This is a result of no uncommon occurrence in extensive projects. Embarking the whole or the greater part of their property in speculative schemes in which innumerable contingencies are involved in expectation of speedy and abundant remuneration thousands of individuals suffer the bitterest disappointment from a total failure of their project or what is equally ruinous to them from extreme delay of dividends. From the latter cause numbers of the original subscribers to the Dee navigation suffered severe losses some forfeiting the whole of their subscriptions rather than meet the calls for further advances and others disposing of their shares at an immense loss.

Chester's decline as a port is sometimes put down only to the silting of the Dee, which is itself blamed on deforestation of the uplands and consequent soil erosion. However, despite attempts to maintain the river, Chester as a port failed to maintain it's importance for several reasons. First, the city was unfortunate in it's location, with the Delamere Forest between it and the northern part of the Cheshire salt fields - that trade went to Liverpool and the Mersey, as did the later cotton trade. Second, the marshes of Saltney hampered transport between the coal and lead mines of Flintshire and Chester (most of the coal trade being destined for Ireland anyway). Lastly the guilds of Chester were conservative in outlook, jealous of their privileges and lacking in enterprise and thus were an inhibiting influence on commerce well into the 18th Century. It is notable that the merchants of Chester hardly engaged in trade with Africa and the America's, even though ships capable of reaching those shores and engaging in the lucrative slave-trade were being laid-down at Chester. Only a very few Chester ships went far afield, for instance in the 1720s to South Carolina for rice, tar, and pitch. In the mid 1750s and the 1770s one or two Chester merchants were in the African slave trade, but mostly in partnership with Liverpool men.

=Reference=

See River Dee Reference

Upper Reaches from the source of the river through Wales; Lower Reaches below Chester to Hilbre Islands and the sea;