St Johns Trail



The area around St Johns in Chester is incredibly rich in historical and cultural interest, including being linked to many myths and legends. Wandering about, one comes across references to the "St John's Trail" on which more information can be found hera. The "St John's Trail" here on Chesterwiki has no association with St John's and sets out a somewhat longer circular "trail" (it takes about two hours) visiting some of the historical and cultural sites around St John's. Much of the walk is outside of the City Walls. It is also mostly in traffic-free and often greener spaces. The various sights are only described briefly. Much more detailed information on many of the locations can be found elsewhere on Chesterwiki and links are given both in the text and below in the "Related Pages" section.

Roman Corner Tower
The Roman Corner Tower might give the impression that these towers were located on the outside of the City Wall. In fact the Corner Towers were located on the inside of the walls, and in centuries of re-building the wall has moved backwards. The remaining base of the former south-east angle tower dates from the late first to early second century. It is purple-grey ashlar sandstone and trapezoidal in plan. Parts of a base-course are visible, then 2 weathered plinth-courses and parts of an ashlar facing course above, with the rubble core and parts of the coursed rubble inner face rising a little higher. The outer face is segmental in plan to coincide with the quadrant corner of the former fortress wall. Also present are part foundations of an adjoining chamber within the former wall-line west of the tower. The remains of the tower and adjoining fragment of the Roman wall are bonded together, hence built at the same time.

The Wolfgate
The Old Newgate, or Wolf Gate (also known as the Pepper Gate and Wolfeld Gate), is a gateway through the city walls dating to the early thirteenth century. Later, it received the name of Pepper Gate, for the spice merchants working on Pepper Street. The present gate is believed to date from 1608, and is the earliest surviving post-medieval gateway in the city walls. It is constructed in sandstone, and contains a wrought iron gate with side-screens and an overthrow.

It has been suggested that the gate's name may be connected with a Scandinavian personal name such as Ulf, Ulfaldi, Wulfadus, or the like and also suggested that the son of Wulfhere, King of Mercia, and brother to St. Werburgh was named Wulfhad. Hence "Wulfhad's Gate may have possibly been a monkish dedication to this Prince and martyr". Legend says that Wulfhere wished to marry his daughter, Werburgh, to Werbode, (a "perverse heathen" according to Chamber's Book of Days). However, Werburga's brothers, Wulfad and Rufinus, objected to the union. Unable to defeat their opposition, Werbode poisoned the King's mind against his sons and obtained his authority to have them arrested for treason. Wulfhere too hastily accepted the fabricated evidence and the guiltless young men were condemned to death. On discovery of the plot, Werburgh decided to become a nun and "Werbode was poisoned by an evil spirit, and died raving mad". This story is unlikely to be true, St Werburgh's brother is now believed to have been Coenred (also spelled Cenred, Kenred or Cœnred) and a further problem with naming the gate after Wulfhad is that the walls in the time of St. Werburgh did not include this section.

According to one of many versions of the tale: in 1573, Ellen, the daughter of Alderman Rauff Aldersey defied her father and eloped through the gate at night to marry a draper. Her father persuaded the city to lock the gate at night for many years, leading to the local expression ‘when the daughter is stolen, shut the Peppergate’ which is the local equivalent of ‘close the stable door after the horse has bolted’. Some City Guides will tell the romantic "ghost story" associated with the gate: that in the years since 1573 the ghostly clatter of her horse's hooves have occasionally been heard around the area of the gate.

Newgate
New Gate is an arch bridge carrying the walkway of the city walls over Pepper Street. The bridge was built in 1938 to relieve traffic congestion in the city, especially at High Cross and is constructed in red sandstone. It was designed by Sir Walter Tapper (who died before it was completed) and his son, Michael. On each side of the bridge is a tower containing mock loops (unglazed slit windows) and surmounted by hipped roofs. Flights of steps on each side lead up to the towers and to the walkway across the top of the bridge. The structure is decorated with carved shields and Tudor roses.

"ἀμφιθέατρον"
Chester's amphitheatre lay outside the south-east corner of the legionary fortress, on a bluff overlooking the River Dee. Its main entrances faced north and south, with smaller entrances facing east and west. In between each of these entrances were two doorways giving access to a corridor running around the outside of the building and staircases leading up to the seats. A vomitorium is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre or a stadium, through which big crowds can exit rapidly at the end of a performance with a reduced risk of crushing. They can also be pathways for actors to enter and leave stage. The Latin word vomitorium, plural vomitoria, derives from the verb vŏmo, vŏmis, vomui, vomitum, vŏmĕre, "to spew forth." In ancient Roman architecture, vomitoria were designed to provide rapid egress for large crowds at amphitheatres and stadiums, as they do in modern sports stadiums and large theatres. There is a common misconception that ancient Romans designated spaces called "vomitoria" for the purpose of actual vomiting, as part of a binge.

The Haunted Path
The local "ghost register" also states that the area is haunted by "a monk in a dark habit who occasionally accosts witnesses in 'Haunted Alley' beside St John's Church, speaking a guttural Saxon-like language." The first modern sighting of the ghost comes from a rather trustworthy source (if the story is to be believed). In 1941 a Franciscan Friar and a man were walking the grounds of St Johns church when "a monk" is said to have appeared before them. The two men turned in a different direction only to be again confronted by the mysterious "monk" who was talking to them in a strange language. The story goes that both men were interested in languages and so, after some research, they came to the conclusion that the monk was speaking Anglo-Saxon. Another encounter with the monk is said to have happened in December 1973 when a college lecturer was making his way home around midnight. He used the cobbled alley near the church when the monk appeared before him on the footpath. The monk tried speaking to the man but the man did not understand. The identity of the ghost will be revealed later.

A walk in the Park
Grosvenor Park is the only large park within the centre of Chester. It is famous for its tame squirrels and its formal gardens. It is bounded by the River Dee to the south, Vicars Lane and Union Street to the north, Dee Lane to the east and the footpath from the Amphitheatre to The Groves to the west. There are entrances along each of the park boundaries. Known as Union Street by 1816, Union Street was formerly "Barker's Lane" a continuation of Vicars Lane whose early name records the presence of tanners in the area as oak bark was used in the Tanning process. There was a pub on Barker's Lane called The King's Arms, the same as the King's Arms on Union Steet. In 1828 it changed it's name to The Union Arms before reverting back to The King's Arms in 1850. After closing, the inn was extensively enlarged towards the rear and became the Grosvenor Skating Rink. The skating rink later became The Broadway Dancing Academy Ballroom, nicknamed 'The Ack', a favourite haunt of American servicemen stationed around Chester during WW2. In the 1950s, the Ack was renamed The Riverpark Ballroom. The Beatles played here on four consecutive Thursdays in 1962: 16th, 23rd (John Lennon's Wedding Day), 30th August and 13th September. The Riverpark Ballroom closed the following year, 1963, and was demolished, together with adjoining buildings, as part of road-widening for the incorporation of Union Street into the Inner Ring Road.

In 1865 Cheshire was hit by a cattle plague and the following year there was an outbreak of Cholera. At the time people believed that this was due to drinking water being contaminated by surface drainage from places where dead cattle had been buried in haste. At a meeting of the Assembly in May 1866 it was decided to provide two places for Cholera wards within the City in case the outbreak reached Chester. One of these was located in a disused farmhouse on the land which was to become the park. The heftiest women from the local workhouse were selected as potential nurses but there was some concern that they were neither honest nor sober, had no training and that it was unwise to put them in charge of either patients or medicines. Fortunately Frances Wilbraham (1815-1905) of Kings Buildings (King Street), a wealthy member of the local gentry volunteered to oversee them. The first two case of cholera appeared on 1st September 1866. One was a woman from a tenement in Goss Street the other Alderman John Trevor, a former mayor and editor of the Chester Chronicle: both were dead within days. The ward in the park was soon full of the sick and dying, but Francis Wilbraham nursed them tirelessly and by November the outbreak began to abate. The Duke of Westminster called Frances Wilbraham the "Florence Nightingale of Chester". The farmhouse was demolished before the park was opened.

The mature trees, including the avenues of holly and lime, were planted during the development of the park in the 1860/70s. The lime trees lining the main avenues have been traditionally maintained in keeping with the Victorian fashion for creating a pyramidal form, which gives rise to their rather strange appearance during the winter months. Many new specimens have been introduced since then, including two Californian redwoods, (Sequoiadendron giganteum), planted in the mid 1970s. These two trees were raised from the seeds of the famous Giant Redwood named "General Sherman" growing in the Californian National Park whose recorded height is 274.9 feet with a mass of over 1,900 tonnes, the largest known living single stem tree on earth, and about 2,000 years old. The two redwoods planted in Grosvenor Park are not expected to attain such astounding dimensions, but may nevertheless develop into very large specimens, given a few thousand years...

Ymir
The Ymir in Grosvenor Park is a tactile sculpture carved from a block of Portland stone, height 95cms. Originally situated in the Garden for the Blind, there was an accompanying tablet in Braille. It has been moved to a more prominent position near the pavilion and the statue is now mounted on a plinth to make it easily accessible, but the mounting does not meet the original intention, which had the figure emerging directly from the ground.


 * Keep heading east until you reach a black and white "half-timbered" lodge.

The Lodge
The Lodge was originally the Park Keeper's Lodge and was Chester City Council's Parks & Gardens Office until 2001. The design of the Lodge and Billy Hobby's Well are the first recorded instance of John Douglas's employment at the hands of the Grosvenor family. The ground floor of the Lodge is made of stones with half-timbering on the second storey. This is Douglas's first known use of black and white. The masonry detailing is Gothic. There are seven carvings representing the Norman Earls of Chester and one representing William the Conqueror.

The restored carvings in 2018
A children's railway runs in a loop on the east side of the park near to the north gate on Union Street. There is a pond in the centre of the loop. The railway was built in 1996 to commemorate the centenary of the Duke of Westminster's railway at Eaton Hall. It has a gauge of 7.25 inches (18 cm) and a circuit of 0.25 miles (0.40 km).


 * Head south towards the statue at the end of the avenue of trees.

The Marquess
This is a marble statue of the park's donor, Richard the Second Marquis, in Garter robes. There was originally a suggestion that it should be bronze, but it was later decided to go for a larger than life marble statue. It was sculpted by Thomas Thornycroft and erected in 1869 at the junction of four avenues. At the time it was thought to be a single piece of Sicilian marble (thought to be the single largest carved from a single block in modern Britain at the time), however it was later found that there was a join at the shoulder.


 * Pass the statue and continue straight on to the semi-circular viewing platform.

Further down the slope and slighly to the left is "Billy Hobby's Well". The well had a magical reputation in Chester. Chester maidens would stand with their right leg immersed in the water, wishing for husbands.In his 2008 book, "Haunted Chester", author David Brandon suggests that Billy Hobby was a real character who invented the legend while employed at the park and charged women to access the well on New Year's Eve. He stopped his lucrative side-line when at least one woman caught a chill and died. However the reference to Billy Hobbies Field from 1745 and the fact that Grosvenor Park was not first opened until 1867 would seem to argue against that.


 * Leave the platform to the right when facing the river and follow the path just inside the park boundary.

The River
There are hundreds of grey squirrels (Sciurus Carolinensis) living in the park. They are extremely tame and will happily run up to take nuts from your fingers. Local folklore says that Grosvenor Park was the first place in Britain where they were introduced from the USA. This is incorrect as grey squirrels were first recorded appearing in nearby Denbighshire, across the Welsh border, in the 1820s. Systematic introduction began when a Thomas Unett Brocklehurst liberated a pair from Henbury Park, Cheshire, in 1876. They seem to have been brought to Chester soon after. The invasive grey squirrel is rapidly driving the UK's native Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) population to extinction, although the loss of habitat has also played a role.

Arches
Some ancient relics of old Chester were also re-erected in Grosvenor Park:


 * the Old Shipgate Arch – this medieval arch formerly stood at the west of the Bridgegate and was taken down in 1831. It was moved about quite a bit before it ended up here.


 * St. Mary's Arch – the archway and wing walls were removed from St Mary's Benedictine Nunnery (adjacent to the Roodee). The Nunnery had lain in ruins since Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. The arch and walls date from around the 13th century. They also have a mystery of their own.


 * a doorway from old St Michael Church - at least that is what the label on it says. However, it actually looks virtually identical to the gate which used to be at "The Bars".


 * Jacobs Well drinking fountain – this little stone arch had a fountain for people and a dish for their pets. It is now dried up - for the simple reason that it was also moved from elsewhere. Beside the fountain is the inscription "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst again" (John IV, 13).

The Hermitage
One of the most unusual buildings in Chester is the Anchorite's Cell or 'Hermitage', a small sandstone building by the River Dee at The Groves. The present building is believed to date from the mid 14th century and was one of two 'cells' built as religious retreats for reclusive monks or hermits. Until the reformation it belonged to the collegiate Church of St Johns which stands on the sandstone ridge "Redcliffe" above the river. The cell itself stands on a sandstone outcrop in a former quarry, which is now set out as a bowling green (which does not appear to be used). It was re-modelled in the 19th century, when gothic traceried windows were added. The porch on the north side originally came from St. Martin's Church which was demolished in 1897. During its long history, the cell has also been a grain warehouse, the meeting place of the Company of Shoemakers and, more recently in the 1970s, an architect's office. The Anchorite's Cell was refurbished as a cottage sometime in the 1970s and is presently a private dwelling.

One hermit may have been none other than Harold Godwinson, once king of England and supposed survivor of the Battle of Senlac Hill (sometimes called the "Battle of Hastings"). Harold's connection with Chester is actually quite a bit more than myth, although the story that he lived on here after his supposed defeat in 1066 takes quite some believing. In 1063 Edward the Confessor's military leader Harold son of Earl Godwin, attacked Gryffudd ap Llywelyn's palace at Rhuddlan in Flintshire using Chester as his base and made himself master of the Vale of Clwyd. Following either Gruffydd's death (apparently at the hands of his own troops) - or simply the fact that Gruffydd had fled - Harold married his widow. The popular story is well known - Harold fights at the Battle of Hastings, gets shot in the eye with an arrow and dies.

According to Gerald of Wales, King Harold II fled only badly wounded from the Battle of Hastings to Chester where he survived as an anchorite (blind in one eye of course) in "The chapel of St. James", close to St Johns Church. The story does seem remarkably persistent. Rudyard Kipling wrote a story, The Tree of Justice (1910), describing how an old man (blind in one eye) who turns out to be Harold is brought before Henry I. A very similar story "Wallingford Castle" was printed in the Metropolitan Magazine (see volume III, January June 1837 page 410).

In 1332, the monks of St Johns Church in Chester supposedly discovered his alleged remains, still "fragrant" and clad in leather hose, golden spurs, and crown. Admittedly, they were a bit short of cash at the time and a few pilgrims would have brought in some money. Supposedly, there is a 'secret passage' which links the Hermitage with St John's, so that the Hermit could attend mass without revealing himself. And the ghost mentioned earlier> - Harold, who it appears can survive anything.

Jacobs Well
Jacob's well is another, possibly ancient drinking fountain, now appearing to be dried up. It can be found in Grosvenor Park Chester. Beside the fountain is the inscription "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again" (John IV, 13) a reference to the original Jacob’s Well in Samaria (Palestine). The same theme is employed in the "Water of LIfe" sculpture in the cloister of the Cathedral. That the well has dried up is unsurprising as the well is not on it's original site. Previously it was sited where the public toilets are located on The Groves, by the path heading down from St Johns Church to the Hermitage. It was at that time a working well and a noted "landmark" on the Groves. It was moved to its current location in 1923.

The Steps
The Recorders Steps are two flights of stone steps in offset flights of 12 and 15 steps, leading from the City Walls to the Groves. The lower flight is separated from the wall by a strip of Gothic stonework. The usual impression given is that these steps were erected for an aged Recorder who had served the City for years and in retirement wanted to get down to the Groves. However, there is something seriously wrong with either the plaque or the story. Assuming the City Assembly Records are right, then the Recorder's Steps were only built (1720-22) after Recorder Roger Comberbach died in 1719. The 1820 date must be an error. But how the idea came about that they were built for the convenience of Roger Comberbach remains a mystery.

The Wall
The east part of south side of City Walls as seen today dates from late 11th to early 12th century, was converted to raised promenade in 1702-8 and repaired during various periods. It is the usual coursed red sandstone rubble. This part of the City Walls forms a retaining wall with ground level on the inner side being equal to that of the wall walk, but on the outer side ground level is around 7m below the wall walk. The wall is partly built on outcropping sandstone bedrock, with some 24 courses of stone beneath the parapet.

This tower probably dates from the 13th century, was damaged 1644-6 during the Civil War, converted to a feature of the raised promenade of the wall walk in 1702-8 and repaired during various periods. It is built of coursed red sandstone rubble. The bastion forms a 3-sided projection from the wall, its platform level with the wall-walk. There is no evidence of any chamber beneath that level. There is mock-crenellation as the tower level and parapet were altered at the expense of Councillor Charles Brown 1879-80. The tower stands upon an outcrop of red sandstone.

The Siege
The less-weathered masonry in the City Walls marks the site of a breach, battered through the wall by Parliamentary cannon, when Chester was besieged during the Civil War. By September 1645, Chester's loyal stand for King Charles I was nearing an end. The suburbs had been taken. The Royalist garrison and all the citizens took refuge inside the City Walls. Parliamentary troops mounted cannon (and snipers) in the tower of St Johns Church, just to the east of where the Roman Gardens are now sited, and bombarded the South Eastern defences. The tower was probably much weakened by this which contributed to its later collapse. On Monday, 22nd September 1645 this stretch of the City Walls were bombarded from 12 noon until 4pm. Thirty-two shots were fired, making a breach wide enough for ten men abreast to enter. Two Royalist soldiers were killed trying to fill the hole with beds and woolpacks. That night, the Parliamentarians tried to storm the breach, but were beaten back after fierce fighting.

The site of the Roman Gardens was previously occupied by a clay tobacco-pipe factory which was in production from at least 1781 until 1917. The foundations of a brick building have been found alongside the City Wall which runs to the east of the Gardens. Chester was the centre for a flourishing clay tobacco-pipe industry. Chester's pipes were exported in great quantities. The earliest clay tobacco-pipe kiln ever found in Britain has been discovered in Chester.

The Coin
The apparently mediaeval house one passes in Park Street was actually built as recently as 1881 (by W. H. Kelly - whose better work includes the 1883 Greysfield House, at Barrow) and bears the legend, "The Fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life". This is sometimes said to be the inscription on an "ancient" (some say Roman) coin found on the site, - it is also found in Proverbs [14:27] (so unlikely to be on a Roman coin). However almost the same words: "TIMOR . DOMINE . FONS . VITAE" were struck onto a (now incredibly rare) issue of silver shillings of Edward VI in 1549, as well as on the gold half-sovereign of the same year (and some groats amd other coins). Edward VI was 9 years old when he was made King in 1547. It was feared that ambitious men close to him may grab his power and use it for their own needs. Therefore these shillings of his reign (only from 1549) were inscribed with this legend. He was dead within a few years, in 1553. the most likely explanation is therefore that the coin found was from Edward VI - and that just because something is written in latin, that does not mean that what it is written on is a Roman relic! Also in 1549 came the execution of Thomas Seymour (Jane Seymour's brother), a guardian of Edward VI whose crime was providing Edward with "pocket money" stolen from the Bristol mint while bad-mouthing his brother who held the official purse-strings. Maybe the decision to mark the coins thus and Seymour's fate are not unrelated.

The Newgate Again
On the 30th September, 1939 the "Munich Agreement" was signed by Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Daladier and Chamberlain, this forced Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany, and Chamberlain returned to make his famous "Peace in Our Time" speech. The following commentary appeared in "The Times" on the 4th October 1938:


 * The rebuilt Newgate at Chester was opened by the Mayor, Alderman George Barlow, yesterday. Presenting the Mayor with a pair of gold scissors with which to cut the tape, Alderman Matthew Jones suggested that they might rename it the Munich Gateway having regard to the circumstances of its inauguration. A prayer was offered by the Dean of Chester, and afterwards there was a luncheon at the Town Hall. The gate has been erected to meet traffic demands and displaces the oldest of the city's gates. The date of erection of the original gate is not known, but a gate stood on the present site in or before 1327 and was known as Wolf's Gate, and later as Pepper Gate.

There are many theories that Adolf lived in Liverpool for a while, but so far no-one has ever suggested that he visited Chester. However there is an interesting twist here: the Sendlinger Tor ("Sending Gate") in Munich does bear a passing resemblance to the New Gate in Chester.



Related Pages

 * City Walls;
 * St Johns;
 * St John Street;
 * Amphitheatre;
 * Pepper Street;
 * Souters Lane;
 * Dark Ages;
 * Roman Chester;
 * Jacobs Well;
 * River Dee;
 * Hermitage;
 * Suspension Bridge;
 * Grosvenor Park;
 * Vicars Lane;
 * Civil War;