Chester Castle



=Introduction=

Chester Castle is one of the few castles in England or Wales that has been in constant use since first erected. For almost 2,000 years - even before the castle was built, armies have used and fought over this location. At times it has housed a mint, a prison, courts and local government offices. The Roman fortress, Æthelflæd's (Alfred the Great's daughter) burh, the small earthwork and timber castle of the Normans, and the larger stone castle created by Ranulf of Blundeville and Henry III were successively built near to, if not directly upon one another.

The history of the city and that of the castle are entangled. Indeed, the name of the city means simply "castle" and was used almost interchangeably in mediaeval descriptions such as the following of Hadrian's Wall:


 * It had many towres or fortresses about a mile distant from another, which they call Castle steeds, and more with in little fensed townes tearmed in these daies Chesters, the plots or ground workes whereof are to be seene in some places foure square; also turrets standing betweene these, wherein souldiers being placed might discover the enimies and be ready to set upon them, wherein also the Areani might have their Stations, whom the foresaid Theodosius, after they were convicted of falshood, displaced and removed from their Stations.

Any castle, an particularly this castle is more than its stones, and the different layers of history can take some time to disentangle. If you visit, don't expect a grand ruin of a castle like Conwy. The surviving parts of Chester castle are impressive, but Chester Castle is more to do with social history than being a frozen ruin of a bygone age. Over the years:


 * the castle has seen revolts (several successful, several not) against various English rulers;
 * has been besieged by kings, has held besieged kings, has been a prison of kings and princes or of those who revolted against them;
 * has seen trials of the unquestionably guilty (and of the probably innocent);
 * has been amongst the best or the worst prisons in the country;
 * has been involved in the success and failure of many military campaigns.

Through almost all of history, someone has been trying to get inside or outside of the walls of the castle at Chester.

=Conflict and Fortification at Chester (Prehistoric to 1069)=

During the times of the Romans, the wars of the Welsh and Northumbrians, the English and the Danes and indeed later during the Civil War, Chester has found itself at an often fought-for crossroads. Until shortly after the Norman Conquest, the fortifications in and around Chester were not at the site of the present castle, but there were still defensive works here. The fortuitous combination of a bend in the navigable River Dee around high ground and the lowest ford on that river meant that this was an ideal location for a Roman fortress-city, an Anglo-Saxon fortified "burg" and later a castle.

One interesting theory about the importance of Chester (and one possible reason why there was so much fighting here) is that it may mark the meeting point of several major European human genetic groups. One theory holds that fter the last ice age the Celts migrated back up the Atlantic coast from their ice age "refuge" in Spain. These coastal people became the Cornish, the Irish and the Welsh. Other groups repopulated the British Isles through Norway and other parts of Scandinavia and a third group migrated across the land bridge that then connected Britain with Europe across what is now the channel. Where these people live today can be mapped using genetic studies. Chester turns out to be a possible "outpost" of the "English" genes. According to the Oppenheimer Theory these are much earlier movements of people than the supposed invasions of the red-haired "Vikings", the blonde "Angles" and "Saxons" or the brunet "Celts". However the conflicting theories about who moved where and when are still the subject of much debate! If this theory holds water, then Chester is placed at (or close to) the "triple point" where the worlds of the "Iberian/Celtic", "Scandinavian" and "Anglo-Saxon/Germanic" peoples collide and is one of the few points where the Anglo-Saxon group would have an "Atlantic" port. Chester's history is very much the history of that port and its decline through the silting of the Dee.

An Iron Age Fortress?


There is no definitive evidence for any kind of Iron Age fortification at Chester itself, but signs of Iron Age settlement (including post-holes) have been found in Chester and reported. It is likely that such a settlement would have included some kind of defensive structure. Hill top enclosures are known along the sandstone ridge at nearby Beeston, Bickerton and Kelsall. Earthworks have also been found at Heronbridge, a little south of Chester.

Some early historical speculation is found in Samuel Lewis's 1848 Topographical Dictionary of England which includes the following information for Chester:


 * The origin of this ancient city has been ascribed to the Cornavii, a British tribe who, at the time of the Roman invasion, inhabited that part of the island which now includes the counties of Chester, Salop, Stafford, Warwick, and Worcester; and its British name Caer Leon Vawr, "city of Leon the Great," has been referred to Leon, son of Brût Darian Là, eighth king of Britain.

There may be some confusion here with Caerleon in south Wales. Caerleon is also a site of considerable archaeological importance, with a Roman legionary fortress (it was the headquarters for Legio II Augusta from about 75 to 300 AD) and an Iron Age hill fort. The name Caerleon is derived from the Welsh for "fortress of the legion" (compare with the Anglo-Saxon name for Chester - Legercyestre). "Brût Darian Là" (Welsh: Bryttys darian las) appears to be a reference to Brutus Greenshield one of the legendary kings mentioned by the notoriously inaccurate Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical (i.e. mostly "made up") Historia Regum Britanniae ("the History of the Kings of Britain"). The "Leon" in question may be Liel after whom Carlisle (another Roman fort) may or may not be named.

Raphael Holinshead (writing in the 1570's) tells a similar story, including mention of a specific governor of Britain, P. Ostorius Scapula (who was governor of Britain from AD47-52):


 * Carleil builded. Chester repaired. Leill the sonne of Brute Greeneshield, began to reigne in the yeare of the world 3021, the same time that Asa was reigning in Iuda, and Ambri in Israell. He built the citie now called Carleil, which then after his owne name was called Caerleil, that is, Leill his citie, or the citie of Leill. He repaired also (as Henrie Bradshaw saith) the citie of Caerleon now called Chester, which (as in the same Bradshaw appeareth) was built before Brutus entrie into this land by a giant named Leon Gauer. But what authoritie he had to auouch this, it may be doubted, for Ranulfe Higden in his woorke intituled "Polychronicon," saith in plaine wordes, that it is vnknowen who was the first founder of Chester, but that it tooke the name of the soiourning there of some Romaine legions, by whome also it is not vnlike that it might be first built by P. Ostorius Scapula, who as we find, after he had subdued Caratacus king of the Ordouices that inhabited the countries now called Lancashire, Cheshire, and Salopshire, built in those parts, and among the Silures, certeine places of defense, for the better harbrough of his men of warre, and kéeping downe of such Britaines as were still readie to moue rebellion.

Ptolemy's 2nd century Geographia has a passing mention (text) of the two cities of the Cornovii as:


 * .From these toward the east are the Cornavi, among whom are the towns: Deva, Legio XX Victrix 17°30 56°45 and Viroconium 16°45 55°45

"Deva Victrix" is Chester, and "Viroconium" is Wroxeter. The later had become the capital of the Cornovii under Roman rule.

While the evidence is scant, at times confusing and some of the sources are known to be rather suspect, it may well be that there was some form of fortification at Chester in the Iron Age, but nothing is known of any particular part which it might have played in history.

The Roman Fort - Romani Ite Domum


Raphael Holinshead (writing in the 1570's) gets the story a a little confused and has the Romans responsible for the undercrofts on the Rows:


 * There be some led by coniecture grounded vpon good aduised considerations, that suppose this Ostorius Scapula began to build the citie of Chester after the ouerthrow of Caratacus: for in those parties he fortified sundrie holds, and placed a number of old souldiers either there in that selfe place, or in some other néere therevnto by waie of a colonie. And for somuch (saie they) as we read of none other of anie name thereabouts, it is to be thought that he planted the same in Chester, where his successors did afterwards vse to harbour their legions for the winter season, and in time of rest from iournies which they haue to make against their common enimies. In déed it is a common opinion among the people there vnto this daie, that the Romans built those vaults or tauerns (which in that citie are vnder the ground) with some part of the castell. And verelie as Ranulfe Higden saith, a man that shall view and well consider those buildings, maie thinke the same to be the woorke of Romans rather than of anie other people. That the Romane legions did make their abode there, no man séene in antiquities can doubt thereof, for the ancient name Caer leon ardour deuy, that is, The citie of legions vpon the water of Dée, proueth it sufficientlie enough.

Sometime around AD74, the then governor of Roman Britain, Sextus Julius Frontinus constructed an "auxiliary fort" at Deva Victrix (Chester). The placement of this fort (at the lowest ford of the Dee) appears to have been a strategic move by Frontinus with the intent of both blocking the route of any routed British trying to escape to the north, and to guard against help arriving from the Brigantes and other northern tribes. Frontinus was a noted engineer as well as being a governor, and author of De aquis urbis Romae, a history and description of the water supply of Rome. It is not known whether he was involved in providing Chester's water supply from the springs at Boughton to the Roman fort, but is is known that at this time lead (such as is used for plumbing) was traded with the Deceangli of north Wales. The lead was probably mined at Pentre


 * In June 1885 (at the Roodee) a lead 'pig' was found inscribed IMP•VESP•AVGV•T•IMP•III: the word DECEANGI appears on the side (this has been dated: AD74).


 * In 1838 (1¼ miles east of Chester's Eastgate) another 'pig' was found with the inscription; IMP•VESP•V•T•IMP•III•COS, and again, on the side; DECEANGI (again dated: AD74).

Frontius was succeeded as governor (in AD78) by Gnaeus Julius Agricola a Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. His biography, the well known De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae (The Life and Character of Julius Agricola), was the first published work of his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus (and says nothing at all about Chester). By AD79, the fort had developed into the extensive base of Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis. There is another naval link here as the Second Legion were initially raised by Vespasian from the marines (Classis Ravennatis)of the Adriatic fleet. There is no real agreement on the size of the roman fleet which might have been associated with Chester - however it may have been the embarkation point for an attempted invasion of Ireland. There is also no real agreement about what is often called the "massive Roman harbour" and pictured to be the size of the modern Roodee.

Further lead piping can be seen in the Grosvenor Museum which bears the name of Gnaeus Julius Agricola in the following form:


 * IMP•VESP•VIIII•T•IMP•VII•COS•CN•IVLIO•AGRICOLA•LEG•AVG•PR•PR


 * (Imperator Vespasian nine times and Imperator Titus seven times consul. For Gnaeus Julius Agricola, pro-praetorian legate of the emperor)

Reconstructions of the Roman city have no specific fortification on the site of the present castle, and the city walls were only extended in mediaeval times to enclose the current castle site. A map detailing the locations of the Roman walls and the castle can be found here. During the Roman period, the castle site may have been an extra-mural official inn or "mancio" forming part of the "Cursus Publicus" (the first pub in Chester?) - although this could also have been the site of a mansion. Quite why the Agricola Tower (see below) at the castle is named after the governor is something of a mystery.

The Romans stayed in Chester until about 369, when the twentieth legion was withdrawn as part of the general collapse of Roman Britain and in the face of increasing "barbarian" attacks. There is no evidence that during the Roman occupation Chester's fortifications were ever put to the test.

The Grosvenor Museum contains a skeleton recovered from the bottom of a Roman well near the site of the castle. Whoever it was, they had broken their leg earlier in life and it had been badly set, so they would have walked with a limp. It appears that the well was near the site of a fire which happened at around the time that the body ended up in the well. A video of the skeleton (thanks to Chestertourist) can be seen on the Grosvenor Museum page.

King Alfred and "Chester Castle"


Around 893, in the time of Alfred, the Danes crossed to England. After a complex campaign the Danes made a forced march across England to occupy the ruined Roman fortress of Chester, arriving late in the year. The Wirral had strong Viking connections after 902 and there may already have been some link ten years earlier.

The Victorian work Picturesque England describes the fortifications at Chester of this time of being a round sandstone castle:


 * The Danes, the following and more terrible invaders, who had been allowed by Alfred the Great to settle in Northumberland, next assailed Chester, and seized the fortress, which was circular and of red stone...



This may simply be an assumption on the part of the author that the present works are older than they actually are (his source is unknown). However a more interesting possibility is that the "fortress" was in fact the Roman Amphitheatre.

King Alfred did not attempt a winter blockade, but besieged the Danes for two days, while he drove away all the cattle; burned the corn thereabouts and slaughtered every Dane that dared venture outside the encampment. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells the story as:


 * Þa hie on Eastseaxe comon to hiora geweorce. 7 to hiora scipum. þa gegaderade sio laf eft of Eastenglum, 7 of Norðhymbrum micelne here onforan winter 7 befæston hira wif, 7 hira scipu, 7 hira feoh on Eastenglum, 7 foron anstreces dæges 7 nihtes, þæt hie gedydon on anre westre ceastre on Wirhealum, seo is Legaceaster gehaten; Þa ne mehte seo fird hie na hindan offaran, ær hie wæron inne on þæm geweorce; Besæton þeah þæt geweorc utan sume twegen dagas, 7 genamon ceapes eall þæt þær buton wæs, 7 þa men ofslogon þe hie foran forridan mehton butan geweorce, 7 þæt corn eall forbærndon, 7 mid hira horsum fretton on ælcre efenehðe. 7 þæt wæs ymb twelf monað þæs þe hie ær hider ofer sæ comon. (As soon as they came into Essex to their fortress, and to their ships, then gathered the remnant again in East-Anglia and from the Northumbrians a great force before winter, and having committed their wives and their ships and their booty to the East-Angles, they marched on the stretch by day and night, till they arrived at a western city in Wirral that is called Chester. There the army could not overtake them ere they arrived within the ramparts: they besieged the ramparts though, without, some two days, took all the cattle that was thereabout, slew the men whom they could overtake outside the ramparts, and all the corn they either burned or consumed with their horses every evening. That was about a twelvemonth since they first came hither over sea.)

Early in 894 (or 895), want of food obliged the Danes to retire once more to Essex (after a few raids on Wales). It is not clear what the inhabitants of Chester (if any) thought of this wanton destruction.

The Roman city was refortified around 907 by the Mercians. The event is recorded in the Chronicle (although versions vary) and a cryptic note from 907 that "Chester was restored" suggests more fighting in that year :


 * A.D. 907. This year died Alfred, who was governor of Bath. The same year was concluded the peace at Hitchingford, as King Edward decreed, both with the Danes of East-Anglia, and those of Northumberland; and Chester was rebuilt.

Raphael Holinshead (writing in the 1570's) also mentions the same, adding that this was when the walls were extended by Æthelflæd - daughter of Alfred and sister to the King:


 * Not without good reason did king Edward permit vnto his sister Elfleda the gouernment of Mercia, during hir life time: for by hir wise and politike order vsed in all hir dooings, he was greatlie furthered & assisted; but speciallie in reparing and building of townes & castels, wherein she shewed hir noble magnificence, in so much that during hir government, which continued about eight yéeres, it is recorded by writers, that she did build and repare these Tamwoorth was by hir repared, Eadsburie and Warwike towns, whose names here insue: Tamwoorth beside Lichfield, Stafford, Warwike, Shrewsburie, Watersburie or Weddesburie, Elilsburie or rather Eadsburie, in the forrest of De la mere besides Chester, Brimsburie bridge vpon Seuerne, Rouncorne at the mouth of the riuer Mercia with other. Moreouer, by hir helpe the citie of Chester, which by Danes had beene greatlie defaced, was newlie repared, fortified with walls and turrets, and greatlie inlarged. So that the castell which stood without the walls before that time, was now brought within compasse of the new wall.



Holinshead also raises the question as to whether there was a "castle" at Chester prior to the construction of the Norman motte at around the time of Hugh of Avranches. In the original Roman plan the walls followed their current route around the north and east of the city from St Martins Way to Pepper Street. However the western boundary of the walls followed St Martins Say south to around Whitefriars and then turned east to close the circuit close to the amphitheatre. Holinshead is correct in that the site of Chester Castle was not enclosed within the walls. The extension of the walls was from the north-west corner fort towards the later site of the Watertower and from the south-east corner fort towards the river Dee. Potential evidence that the walls were complete by the time of Edward the Elder (899-924) exists in the form of a coin type apparently minted at Chester early in his reign, the reverse of which has been interpreted as either a building, in the form of a church tower or the gateway to a burh or as a reliquary box containing the remains of an otherwise unknown saint.

Holinshead may be just plain wrong about the castle being brought "within compasse of the new wall" - on the grounds that it was not actually built at the time. However it is just possible that the "castle" referred to (and possibly the place the Vikings used as a stronghold) was the re-used ruin of one of the substantial Roman buildings outside of the line of the Roman walls - for example the "Mansio" (marked "M" on the map above) or one of the other "circular" buildings around a square courtyard.

=The Chester Castle Site (Middle Ages)=

During the 10th century Chester became well established as a major Mercian port and appears to have been the only sizable port in the region. From the 990s the family of Leofwine of Mercia settled in Chester and helped to ensure the city's survival as a major provincial centre. Leofwine was an "Ealdorman". Towards the end of the tenth century, the term ealdorman gradually disappeared as it gave way to eorl, probably under the influence of the Danish term jarl, which evolved into modern English earl. The analogous term is sometimes count, from the French comte, derived from the Latin comes. The ealdormen can be thought of as the early English earls, for their ealdormanries (singular ealdormanry, same meaning as earldom) eventually became the great earldoms of Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norman England. By 1066 Chester was a prosperous town with a population of between 2,500 and 3,000, producing annual taxes of £45 (this was pounds of silver in 1066 money: see Saxon Pound) and 120 pine marten pelts, together with an additional income from the mint - see Dark Age Chester. Chester was assessed as including the townships of Handbridge, Newton by Chester, 'Lee' (Overleigh and Netherleigh), and 'Redcliff'. Already, Chester had its own laws and customs, administered by the "hundredal court", over which presided 12 doomsmen (iudices civitatis) drawn from the men of king, earl, and bishop, and liable to fines payable to the king and earl for failure to carry out their duties. The "doomsmen" have been regarded as evidence of Scandinavian influence on Chester's institutions and have been compared to the 'lawmen' (lagemen or iudices) of some boroughs in the Danelaw.

William the Bastard and Hugh the Fat




Chester played some part in the events following Hastings:


 * Immediatlie after he [William] had thus got the victorie in a pight field (as before ye haue heard) he first returned to Hastings, and after set forward towards London, wasted the countries of Sussex, Kent, Hamshire, Southerie, Middlesex, and Herefordshire, burning the townes, and sleaing the people, till he came to Beorcham. In the meane time, immediatlie after the discomfiture in Sussex, the two earles of Northumberland and Mercia, Edwin and Marchar, who had withdrawne themselues from the battell togither with their people, came to London, and with all speed sent their sister quéene Aldgitha vnto the citie of Chester, and herewith sought to persuade the Londoners to aduance one of them to the kingdome: as Wil. Mal. writeth. (Holinshed)

Chester was one of the last places subdued after the Norman Conquest. During the "Harrying of the North" (1069-1070), the death toll is believed to have been 150,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage. Due to the ruthless and violent "scorched earth" policy which the Normans employed, much of the land was laid waste and depopulated. In parts of the north, the damage was such that the survivors had to resort to cannibalism. Inevitably, plague followed. All told, about a fifth of the population of England may have died during the Norman Conquest.

In 1069 the men of Chester in alliance with Eadric the wild and the Welsh rose against the Conqueror and laid siege to Shrewsbury. William quelled the revolt and ordered a castle to be built at Chester in 1069-1070. A large "motte and bailey" castle was constructed overlooking the lowest fording point of the river. In order to make space for this, or perhaps as part of the "harrying", half the Saxon city was levelled. The ramparts and tower at this time would have been wooden. Very roughly, the motte or "inner ward" occupied the present site of the older buildings on the hill that can still be seen, while the bailey or "outer ward" occupied the site of the present car-park between the pillared entrance and include the site of the more modern buildings. The central keep of the castle is believed to have been located on the site of the surviving "Flag Tower", shown in the map below.



As can be seen from the satellite image the motte at Chester is unusual in that it is oval rather than round.

A description of this type of castle is given in the life of St John, Bishop of Terouanne:


 * "The rich and the noble of that region being much given to feuds and bloodshed, fortify themselves ... and by these strongholds subdue their equals and oppress their inferiors. They heap up a mound as high as they are able, and dig round it as broad a ditch as they can ... Round the summit of the mound they construct a palisade of timber to act as a wall. Inside the palisade they erect a house, or rather a citadel, which looks down on the whole neighbourhood".

This is the first real evidence of fortification exactly on the present site of Chester Castle.

At first, Chester was held by Gherbod the Fleming but when he returned to "more civilised" Normandy the castle and surrounding districts were given (1071) by the king to Walter's nephew Hugh of Avranches. A footnote in Gerald of Wales tells it thus:


 * The first earl of Chester after the Norman conquest, was Gherbod, a Fleming, who, having obtained leave from king William to go into Flanders for the purpose of arranging some family concerns, was taken and detained a prisoner by his enemies; upon which the conqueror bestowed the earldom of Chester on Hugh de Abrincis or of Avranches, "to hold as freely by the sword, as the king himself did England by the crown."

Hugh of Avranches had contributed to William's invasion of England (providing 60 ships). He did not fight at Senlac Hill (called Hastings by some), but was trusted to stay behind and govern Normandy.

By 1075 and the subjugation of the Revolt of the Earls, the Conquest was completed. Before his death in 1101, Hugh went on to make a huge fortune from his position as the Earl of Chester and also became so fat that he could hardly walk (he was known in later life as "Hugh the Fat"). A further castle was build at Frodsham although nothing of this now remains.

As later events were to show, The Earls of Chester may have had a solid castle, but they tended to lead tumultuous lives.

The Nineteen Year Winter


The line of the d'Avranches as Earls of Chester failed when Hugh of Avranches's son Richard of Avranches, with his illegitimate half-brother Ottuel, joined the young prince William (heir to Henry I) aboard the doomed White Ship in 1120. The ship foundered, drowning all but one, and Richard died aged 26, leaving no issue.

William of Malmesbury wrote:


 * "Here also perished with William, Richard, another of the King's [Henry I] sons, whom a woman of no rank had borne him, before his accession, a brave youth, and dear to his father from his obedience; Richard d'Avranches, second Earl of Chester, and his brother Otheur; Geoffrey Ridel; Walter of Everci; Geoffrey, archdeacon of Hereford; [Matilda] the Countess of Perche, the king's daughter; the Countess of Chester; the king's niece Lucia-Mahaut of Blois; and many others..."

The earldom then passed through his father Richard of Avranches's sister Maud to Richard of Avranches's first cousin Ranulf de Meschines, in 1121. However, following the death of Henry I, the loss of the White Ship was a cause of the conflicting claims to the throne during the period of the Anarchy (1135–1154) during which:


 * "æuric rice man his castles makede and agænes him heolden; and fylden þe land ful of castles. Hi suencten suyðe þe uurecce men of þe land mid castelweorces; þa þe castles uuaren maked, þa fylden hi mid deoules and yuele men. Þa namen hi þa men þe hi wendan ðat ani god hefden, bathe be nihtes and be dæies, carlmen and wimmen, and diden heom in prisun and pined heom efter gold and syluer untellendlice pining; for ne uuaeren naeure nan martyrs swa pined alse hi waeron." ("Every chieftain made castles and held them against the king; and they filled the land full of castles. They viciously oppressed the poor men of the land with castle-building work; when the castles were made, then they filled the land with devils and evil men. Then they seized those who had any goods, both by night and day, working men and women, and threw them into prison and tortured them for gold and silver with uncountable tortures, for never was there a martyr so tortured as these men were.")

Ellis Peters set the Brother Cadfael stories (published 1977–1994) against the background of the Anarchy. During this time of trouble, known also as The Nineteen Year Winter, it was declared in the Chronicle that:


 * "In the days of this King there was nothing but strife, evil, and robbery, for quickly the great men who were traitors rose against him. When the traitors saw that Stephen was a good-humoured, kindly, and easy-going man who inflicted no punishment, then they committed all manner of horrible crimes . . . And so it lasted for nineteen years while Stephen was King, till the land was all undone and darkened with such deeds, and men said openly that Christ and his angels slept".

The then Earl of Chester, Ranulf de Gernon, played a major part in the fighting - both against the new king (Stephen) and for him. Henry I had not helped to ensure a simple succession as he still holds the record for the largest number of acknowledged illegitimate children born to any English king (around 20 or 25).

As the Chronicle puts it:


 * After this waxed a very great war betwixt the king and Randolph, Earl of Chester; not because he did not give him all that he could ask him, as he did to all others; but ever the more he gave them, the worse they were to him.

Rebuilding in Stone


Hugh of Cyfeiliog, joined the baronial Revolt of 1173-1174 against Henry II, and lost the castle when captured and imprisoned. However, he had his estates restored in 1177. His son, Ranulf of Blundeville, otherwise known as Ranulph IV de Meschines (1172-1232) made an alliance with Llywelyn the Great (effectively Prince of Wales), whose daughter Elen married de Blondeville's nephew and heir, John Canmore, in about 1222.

At around this time, the Agricola Tower was added to the castle. This is named after the Roman governor of the same name, but why is unclear. It was initially the inner gatehouse of the castle, but one end of the gate passage was later blocked up. John Henry Parker describes the castle of this period as follows:


 * The Castle has been almost entirely rebuilt. The only remains of antiquity are a portion of the Norman walls of the substructure next the river, much patched, and the square tower called Julian's Tower. This was the gatehouse, built at the end of the twelfth century, during the period of the transition of styles. One side of it is built upon the Roman wall of the city, and one corner stands upon a Roman arch,—the vaulted passage through the tower remaining perfect, but walled up at both ends. Over it is a chapel, with a vault of transition Norman work, almost Early English, probably of about 1190 to 1200. The situation of the altar, with its piscina, credence, and locker, are plainly to be seen, though mutilated. There was a drawbridge from the outer entrance to the ancient wooden bridge which crossed the river at this spot, and there are remains of the causeway leading to it on the opposite side of the river.



The Tower is described at length in in Samuel Lewis's 1848 Topographical Dictionary of England:


 * Of the ancient castle, built by the Conqueror, there remains only a large square tower, called "Julius Agricola's Tower," now used as a magazine for gunpowder. Though of modern appearance, having been newly fronted, it is undoubtedly of great antiquity, and interesting as the probable place of confinement of the Earl of Derby, and the place in which Richard II., and Margaret, Countess of Richmond, were imprisoned. In the second chamber James II. heard mass, on his tour through this part of the kingdom, a short time previously to the Revolution. This apartment, when opened after many years of disuse as a chapel, exhibited, from the richness of its decorations, a splendid appearance, the walls being completely covered with paintings in fresco, as vivid and beautiful as when executed; and the roof, from the fine effect produced by the ribs of the groined arches, springing elegantly from slender pillars with capitals in a chaste and curious style, was equally striking.

The Norman wooden tower at the summit of the motte was also replaced in the 13th century with a square stone tower, now known as the Flag Tower. Later castles had round towers so that there were no corners to attack with siege engines. Indeed, the later towers at Chester were round. The wooden palisade that ran around the summit of the motte was also later replaced with stone. When this was done, the wall was built flush with the flag tower (unlike in later castles where towers projected to allow fire along the walls). The lower level of the Flag Tower remains but is not visible from outside the castle, although it is possible to see where the stonework links up.



Ranulf of Blundeville built, or improved, several other castles beside Chester. Much of his knowledge in this area may have come from the rapid improvements in castle design that occurred at the time of the crusades. Among Ranulf's other castles was Beeston, the "castle on the rock".

Henry III (King from 1216 to 1272) added the part-round and projecting "Half-moon Tower" after the death of John the Scot without issue in 1237. He spent £1,717 on Chester Castle, a huge sum at the time.

Some evidence relating to the walls of the castle of Chester was found in the Public Record-Office, London. The document proves that the date of the present walls cannot be earlier than the time of Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272). While the document is not dated, it belongs to that reign ; and from the handwriting, is probably about A.D. 1260.

Public Record-Qffice, London, Royal Letters, No. 437:


 * "Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliœ Dominus Hibermœ Dux Normanmse Aqnitaniœ et Comea Andegaviœ dilecto et fideli suo J. de Grey .Instil.hirió suo Cestrke. Mandamus vobis quod ballium circa castrnm nostrum Cestrise quod clausum lull palo, amoto palofflo, claudi faciatis calce et petra et similiter ballium circa castrum nostrum de Dissaid ubi necesse fuerit reparan faciatis. Et custum quod ad hoc posueritis per visum et testimonium legalium hominum computabitur vobis ad Scaccarium. Teste," [torn off]. ("Henry, etc .. To his beloved and faithful J. de Grey, his Justice of Chester. We command you that you cause to be removed the wooden fence of the bailey around our Castle of Chester, and that you cause the said bailey to be enclosed with a stone wall. And that in like manner you re-edify the bailey around our Castle of Dissaid, wherever it may be necessary. And the sums that you shall expend on the same being certified by the view and testimony of lawful men, shall be allowed to you at our exchequer." )

Henry's son, the new Lord of Chester Castle and later Edward I, was an even more profligate castle-builder. According to some sources, a daring escape from Chester Castle was made in 1246 by Owain Goch ap Gruffydd, brother of Prince Llewelyn, who had been held hostage by King Henry - Gwr ysydd yn nhwr yn hir westai (a man who is in the tower, long a guest) - although some claim he was imprisoned at Dolbadarn. Other sources have Henry III releasing Owain to cause trouble amongst his brothers. According to some sources Owain rejoined Llewelyn's forces and in 1257 they "ravaged the country to the very gates of the city" (others have him refusing to return to Wales). In response, King Henry and Prince Edward organised a further expedition into Wales, mustering men and equipment in the city. Envoys from Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd visited the king at Chester, and the royal wardrobe and its staff were again brought to the castle. After a fortnight's stay, Henry and Edward set out on what was to be Henry III's last invasion of Wales. They returned to Chester less than a month later after a brief campaign leading to a difficult peace.

In 1267, during the second Baron's War, the royalist supporters of Henry III besieged Luke de Taney, Simon de Montfort's justice of Chester, in Chester Castle. Taney surrendered upon news of de Montfort's defeat at Evesham, and Prince Edward himself occupied Chester, from where he sent out instructions described as his 'first recorded act of state' as a 'responsible adviser of the Crown'. While de Montfort had held Chester Castle (see Earls of Chester), he had reached an arrangement with Llewelyn, something that Edward would neither forget nor forgive.


 * Agricola Tower at English Heritage;
 * Agricola Tower on Wikipedia;

The "Hammer Of The Scots"
Edward I (ruler from 1272) is remembered as the conqueror of Wales and the "Hammer of the Scots" (he had this inscribed on his tombstone). He also introduced to England the repugnant practice of forcing Jews to wear yellow patches on their outer garments - before their expulsion in 1290 (the idea was later copied by the Nazis). When the newly crowned Edward called Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, then Prince of Wales, to Chester Castle in 1275 to pay homage, Llywelyn refused to attend ("fearing for his safety") and Edward had the excuse he needed for the Welsh war.

With the outbreak of Edward's first Welsh war in 1277, Chester Castle was made one of the three military commands from which Llywelyn's principality was attacked. Royal forces operating from the city under the command of William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, quickly brought northern Powys to submission. As in previous campaigns, workmen, soldiers, timber, ammunition, victuals and boats were assembled in the city. The royal wardrobe was also brought there in five carts. With the castle thus established as the chief base for operations in north-eastern Wales, Edward himself arrived July 1277 to lead a large force of infantry on the culminating campaign. He returned to the castle in September 1277 when it was clear that Llywelyn would be forced to surrender. After Llywelyn's defeat an unsteady compromise was reached, but strained relations did not last. After Llywelyn had been lured into a trap and put to death on 11 December 1282, his brother Dafydd became ruler of Wales.

On 22 June 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd was captured. Dafydd, seriously wounded, was brought to Edward's camp at Rhuddlan and taken from there to Chester (presumably to the castle) and then on to Shrewsbury. On 30 September 1283, Dafydd was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for what would be described as "high treason" against the king. The execution featured dragging through the streets, hanging, drawing and quartering, apparently at the express order of the vengeful Edward.

The future Edward II, was born in 1284, the fourth son of Edward I of England by his first wife Eleanor of Castile, and was the first English prince to hold the title of the Prince of Wales. He was also made Earl of Chester.



A new gateway tower to the outer bailey flanked by two half-round towers was added to Chester Castle c.1290, between Edward's second and third Welsh wars. According to some sources around 1296 Chester Castle was the prison of Andrew Moray who managed to escape. Other sources have Moray's son Andrew Murray being held captive at Chester.

Edward last visited the castle in 1301. In 1302, there was a fire in the Agricola Tower and the lower floor was remodelled entirely, with one of the doorways being bricked up. Meanwhile, Edward ensured that the heirs of the Welsh princes would trouble him no more:


 * "As the King wills that Owain son of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, who is in the Constable’s custody in the castle, should be kept more securely than he has been previously, he orders the Constable to cause a strong house within the castle to be repaired as soon as possible, and to make a wooden cage bound with iron in that house in which Owain might be enclosed at night" - (Order from King Edward I to the Constable of Bristol Castle).

Edward's own son did not exactly prosper. The Earl of Chester became king (Edward II) in 1308, was deposed in 1327, and died (horribly) later the same year. He never passed the Earldom of Chester on to his heir. A rumour that Edward II had been murdered (at Berkeley Castle) by means of a red hot iron was elaborated in a later history by Sir Thomas More:


 * "On the night of 11 October (1327 AD) while lying in on a bed [the king] was suddenly seized and, while a great mattress... weighed him down, a plumber's iron, heated intensely hot, was introduced through a tube into his secret parts so that it burned the inner portions beyond the intestines."

Holinshed states that the shrieks of the King were heard, through the thick stone walls, all over the town of Berkeley, but compared to what happened to Edward II's favourite and possible gay lover Hugh Despenser, this was quite mild.

It is thought by some that the beautiful frescos in the chapel of St Mary de Castro (upper part of the Agricola Tower) were painted by artists brought back from Europe by Edward II, but others have suggested Henry III. While the English Heritage website says they were discovered in the 1980s, Lewis (see above) apparently mentions them as being visible in 1848. Mysterious stuff, history.

Bollingbroke and Richard II
Richard II was another mild-mannered king who favoured genteel interests like fine food, insisted spoons be used at his court and is said to have invented the handkerchief. Like Edward II, he had a militaristic father but was a much weaker character himself. In 1399, his cousin, Henry Bollingbroke, later Henry IV but then just Duke of Lancaster, landed in Britain after exile and took Chester without a fight. The Duke stayed at Chester Castle for 12 days, amusing himself by drinking the king's wine, wasting fields and pillaging houses. While there ("this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, who all this while hath revell'd in the night"), he also found time to secure the arrest and execution of Sir Peter Legh of Lyme, one of Richard's leading retainers in Cheshire - Legh's head was placed on the Eastgate.

Henry then marched against Richard at Fflint Castle to which Richard had been lured from the safety of Conwy Castle. Richard surrendered, but not before trying to escape dressed as a monk. Shortly before his capture, Richard II hid his personal fortune of 100,000 marks in gold coin and 100,000 marks in other precious objects (about £200 million in today's money) in the Chester area. Some say at Beeston Castle, some say elsewhere - but the hoard has never been found.

According to Stowe's Annals, following the capture of the King, Bollinbrook


 * " with a high sharp voice, badde bring forth the king's horses; and then two little naggs, not worth forty francs, were brought forth."

The king was set on the one, and the earl of Salisbury on the other, and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's son, who led him straight to the castle (still wearing the monk's habit in which he had attempted to escape) and "lodged" them in Chester Castle for a few days (possibly in a tower over the outer gateway, possibly in the Agricola Tower), while Henry received a deputation from the City of London renouncing their fealty to the prisoner. Afterwards, Richard was escorted to Westminster, where he was persuaded to abdicate. Bollingbroke usurped Richard and became Henry IV.

Rebellions continued throughout the first ten years of Henry IV's reign, including the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr, who declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400, and the rebellion of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. Early in 1400, there was a revolt in Cheshire, linked with the Earls' Rising. Those involved included prominent members of Richard's Cheshire retinue and a large group of townsmen from Chester, who, dressed in the livery of the deposed monarch, removed Legh's head from the Eastgate and unsuccessfully besieged the castle, then held by the Chamberlain of Chester, the Sheriff of Cheshire, and the Constable, William Venables of Kinderton. The deposed King Richard died in prison later in the year (17 February 1400), possibly having been starved to death on Henry's orders.

Courts of another kind
By 1400, two courts were operating in Chester. One was the Court of the city sheriffs which heard petty criminal proceedings, and was named the Pentice after the two-storey building in whose upper floor (or penthouse) the court was housed. The other was the Portmoot presided over by the mayor and bailiffs, sometimes with the sheriffs present too. The Portmoot dealt with civil actions, including disputes over real estate, and with offences against the community (breaches of the assizes of ale and bread came up before the Pentice). Some law reports from these times can be found here. By today's standards the punishments were quite barbaric - in 1435:


 * "Thomas Broune of Irby complained to the Justice of Chester that John Strete of Nantwich stole a horse of his, worth 12s. Strete was arrested, but refused to plead; he could speak but of his malice he would not. The jury convicted him and the sentence was pronounced: let him be sent back to prison in the King's Castle of Chester and there be kept under strict custody, lying naked upon the floor; let iron above what he can carry be placed upon his body; as long as he lives let him have a morsel of bread one day and the next a drink of water from the nearest prison gate, until he shall die there in the said prison." (Chester Plea Rolls)

The antagonism between the houses of Lancaster and York following the usurpation of Richard was to continue. The Wars of the Roses were mostly fought between 1455 and 1485. After the Battle of Blore Heath in 1459, two of the Yorkist leaders, the Earl of Salisbury's sons, Thomas and John Neville, were imprisoned in Chester Castle. Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was also imprisoned here for a time.

Ranulf Higden's sketch of the castle Ranulf Higden's sketch of the castle

Ranulf Higden's sketch of the castle shows it as it was around the mid 14th Century. The towers in the inner bailey are (clockwise from left to right) the flag tower, the half moon tower, the tower on the later site of the Frobisher's Workshop, the inner gate, the "Agricola" tower and some towers that have since been demolished. The wall of the inner-bailey facing the river shows the sally-port or postern gate which still exists to this day. A small projecting tower above the postern protects it by allowing various things to be dropped to those trying to enter. In the outer bailey the drum-towered gateway is at the 12 O'clock position and going clockwise one finds a chapel, the shire hall and the exchequer (or maybe these are in reverse order). The bridge can be seen linking the outer and inner bailey.

=The Castle Site: Early Modern=

By the middle of the 15th Century, the cannon had appeared as a significant weapon. In 1453, at the Battle of Castillon the Valois used cannon to defeat the Lancastrians and effectively end the Hundred Years' War. Following this time, castles were in decline as military structures but they continued to perform important social roles, where security was important: often being used as prisons, mints and for the storage of gunpowder.

In 1441 three priests associated with Elanor Cobham, Roger Bolingbroke, Eleanor's secretary; John Hunne, her chaplain; and Thomas Southwell were executed for conspiring to kill the then king (Henry V) by witchcraft (or "on charges of treasonable necromancy"). Eleanor was tried on the same charges and admitted five of the twenty-eight counts. Eleanor was sentenced her to do public penance in London, divorced from Humphrey (brother of King Henry V) and imprisoned for life, at first in Chester Castle and later at Kenilworth and also at Peel on the Isle of Man.

The Shire Hall and Prison
The Saxon Great Hall in the outer bailey was rebuilt in the 1570-80s, roughly where the court buildings now stand. However, the Saxon hall was not demolished - in 1581, the city magistrates bought it "for six Cheshire cheeses", and moved it to the Market Square where it served as a granary, before being taken over by the city's butchers, to become the "flesh shambles".

In 1626, the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire was ordered to establish a magazine in Chester Castle at the county's expense. The post of the Lord Lieutenant was at this time held by the Earl of Derby. This same Earl of Derby was later tried at Chester and executed (1651) in Churchgate, Bolton. While in Chester Castle, Derby nearly escaped by means of a long rope thrown up to him from outside the walls; he fastened the rope securely, slid down it, and reached the banks of the River Dee, where a boat waited for him. Unfortunately, Derby's escape was discovered; he was seized (by Captain Hector Schofield) and brought back to the castle. Derby is connected via his wife to the Steeleye Span song They Called Her Babylon.

The hall was the site of the surrender of the city in 1646 after the siege during the Civil War.

In 1651, the castle was described as follows:


 * "At the first coming in is the Gate-house, which is a prison for the whole County, having divers rooms and lodgings. And hard within the Gate is a house, which was sometime the Exchequer but now the Custom House. Not far from thence in the Base Court is a deep well, and thereby stables, and other Houses of Office. On the left-hand is a chappell and hard by adjoyning thereunto, the goodly fair and large Shire-Hall newly repaired where all matters of Law touching the County Palatine are heard, and judicially determined. And at the end thereof the brave New Exchequer for the said County Palatine. All these are in the Base Court. Then there is a drawbridge into the Inner Ward, wherein are divers goodly Lodgings for the Justices, when they come, and herein the Constable himself dwelleth. The Thieves and Fellons are arraigned in the said Shire-Hall and, being condemned, are by the Constable of the Castle or his Deputy, delivered to the Sheriffs of the City, a certain distance without the Castle-Gate, at a stone called The Glover's Stone from which place the said Sheriffs convey them to the place of execution, called Boughton."

Some say that the "Glover's Stone" (see Gloverstone) can still be seen in Water Tower Gardens - others have it buried beneath the Military Museum. A modern development, "Gloverstone Court", can be found nearby.

Edmund Halley and the Mint


The building at the back of to the Half-moon Tower was used as the Chester Mint for the Great Recoinage of 1696-98. At this time, most silver coins in circulation had been reduced in size ("debased") by "clipping" - the offence (at times punishable by death) of paring the edge of each coin and collecting the silver for sale. Coin clipping is why many coins later had the rim marked with stripes (milling or reeding), text (engraving) or other ornamentation that would indicate any clipped coin. By 1695, hammered coin had been debased to a mere 50% of its original weight and it was decided that all the coins in circulation would be recalled and reminted to a standardised form, overseen by eminent and respectable men (to reassure the public who were concerned about the effect recoinage would have on their wealth). Sir Isaac Newton presided at the Royal Mint in London and Edmond Halley (of Halley's Comet fame) in Chester.

The map of the castle from this time refers to the "Frobisher's House". Frobisher is an English surname derived from fourbisseor, meaning to burnish. As such it was an occupational surname applied to an armourer who put the finishing touches to his work, by 'furbishing' armour - i.e. by rubbing it with chains until it was bright. The word "refurbish" is derived from this. After the days of armour the "furbisher" was still an armourer, but may have provided weapons of the "lock, stock and barrel" variety. The rolls of the Freemen of the city of Chester, referring to the processions which accompanied the medieval mystery plays state that "The smiths, forbers and pewterers will march together...."

The recoinage was something of a disaster. On 4 May 1696, hammered silver coin was officially "demonetised" but by the end of June, only 12% of the new coin had been returned to circulation. Public confidence in bank "notes" collapsed and a general currency crisis followed. There was a widespread resort to barter and the government found it almost impossible to borrow or to pay the army. Financially exhausted, William III (aka William of Orange or King Billy) was forced to end his part in the War of the Grand Alliance.

Halley was a contemporary of Wren, Pepys, Hooke, Handel, Purcell and Dryden. He was a schoolboy in London while the Great Fire raged, and was an active participant in the Enlightenment, an age of profound developments in all the arts and sciences. As a younger contemporary of Isaac Newton, he had a crucial part in the Newtonian revolution in the natural sciences. It was Halley who posed the question that led Newton to write the Principia (published in 1687), and who edited, paid for and reviewed it. In 1705, applying historical astronomy methods, Halley published Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae, which stated his belief that the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 related to the same comet and predicted it would return in 1758. When it did, it became generally known as Halley's Comet.

Chester has a further astronomy connection in that it was brifely the home of the astronomer William Molyneux. Due to fighting in Ireland during 1689-1690, William was in Chester when his work on optics was written. It has the impressive title: "Dioptrica Nova, A treatise of dioptricks in two parts, wherein the various effects and appearances of spherick glasses, both convex and concave, single and combined, in telescopes and microscopes, together with their usefulness in many concerns of humane life, are explained". William's son Samuel was born in Chester and William's wife, Lucy Domvile, may have died in Chester.

Jacobite Prisoners
James II of England (VII of Scotland) had become King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland on 6 February 1685. According to Lewis (cit ultra) he once (in 1687) heard mass in the chapel of the Agricola Tower. James was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of England, and Kingdom of Ireland, being deposed in the Glorious Revolution (1688). He was replaced not by his Roman Catholic son, James Francis Edward (the 'Old Pretender'), but by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, who became joint rulers in 1689. The belief that James (not William or Mary) was the legitimate ruler became known as Jacobitism (from Jacobus or Iacobus, Latin for James). In 1715 and 1745, there were Jacobite risings in the country.

Captives of both the 1715 and the 1745 Jacobite risings were held in Chester. In 1715, after the government's victory at Preston, c. 500 Jacobite prisoners were brought to the castle. Because of a quarrel between the governor and Chester corporation they were held there until 1717 in crowded conditions, and disease spread from them to the soldiers. Hemingway, in his History of Chester, mentions the following:


 * Of the fifteen: "This winter Lord Charles Murray (son to the Duke of Athol) with several gentlemen, and a great number of private men, who had been taken (November 13th) in the rebellion at Preston, were brought prisoners to Chester Castle. The weather was very severe, and the snow lay a yard deep in the roads. Many of the above mentioned prisoners died in the castle by the severity of the season; many were carried off by a very malignant fever; and most of the survivors were transported to the plantations in America. As the castle was quite filled with these prisoners, the Lent Assizes were held in Northwich."


 * Of the forty-five: "Fearing the rebel army from Scotland, Chester and its Castle was again fortified. One veteran regiment, and three new ones were raised. However the rebels did not approach the city only passing through a part of the county on their way to Staffordshire. However, after the surrender of Carlisle, a number of the rebels were brought prisoners in sixteen carts and held at the castle - which they completely filled."

=Thomas Harrison and Later=

Sometime between 1745 and 1776, the southern wall of the inner bailey was removed to make way for a four-gun platform that gave a broad field of fire across the river. At the same time, the upper parts of the Flag and Half-moon Towers were removed so that ordnance mounted on their roofs would have a solid firing platform.



Francis Grose's The Antiquities of England and Wales (published 1772) has the following entry for Chester castle:


 * This Castle, it is said, was either built or greatly repaired by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, nephew to William the Conqueror; .. ..Chester Castle is built of a soft reddish stone, which does not well endure the weather, and is at present much out of repair, several large pieces of the walls having lately fallen down into the ditch. Indeed its trifling consequence as a fortress would hardly justify the expense of a thorough repair. It is, however, commanded by a governor and lieutenant governor, and is commonly garrisoned by two companies of invalids.

By this time the development of artillery had rendered the simple stone castle obsolete as regards a defensive position. There were plans to build massive earthworks around the castle as a defence against artillery, but these came to nothing. However, like many other many castles, Chester found a continuing role as a place for the storage of arms, a courthouse, a garrison point and as a prison. A datestone at the centre of the south-south-western rear curtain wall wall gives a date of 1786 for the refacing of the outer wall.

Demolition Without War


In 1780, the castle was largely demolished to make way for County Hall, Courts, and barracks for the Cheshire Regiment. At around this time, there were also many demands for reform of the prison system and the deplorable conditions in Britain's gaols. Chester Gaol was particularly bad, and compared by John Howard (after whom the Howard League for Penal Reform is named) to 'the Black Hole of Calcutta'. Hemingway (writing in 1836) states that the earlier prison was described as follows:


 * Their day confinement is in a little yard, surmounted on all sides by lofty buildings impervious to the air, excepting from above, and even unvisited by the purifying rays of the sun. Their nocturnal apartments are in cells, seven feet and a half by three and a half, ranged on one side by a subterraneous dungeon, in each of which are often lodged three or four persons. The whole is rendered more horrible by being pitched over three or four times in the year. The scanty air of their straight prison-yard is to travel through three passages to arrive at them through the window of an adjoining room, through a grate in the floor of the said room, into the dungeon ; and finally, from the dungeon through a little grate above the door of each of their kennels.

In 1785, it was decided to hold a competition to rebuild Chester Gaol. The prize was 50 guineas and the winning design was submitted by Thomas Harrison, then relatively unknown. The new prison was praised as one of the best-constructed prisons in the country. It had such endearing features as a raised exercise yard with a delightful view of distant Beeston Castle. However, it was a project that was to take 37 years, was plagued by financial problems, needed two separate Acts of Parliament and was slowed down by poor workmanship (much of the work being undertaken by a badly housed and often-undernourished population of convicts).

The listed building citation for the goal describes it as follows:


 * The felon's prison at Chester was half polygonal in plan, with five ranges around a central chapel and governor's house. The wings were raised on arcades and were single-sided with external galleries. Flanking the governor's house were two wings containing work cells. On the other side of the governor's house was the County Hall and between the two were further prison buildings ranged around two courtyards. Rooms for male debtors surrounded the debtor's yard and rooms for female debtors and an infirmary flanked the women's yard. In 1819 the gaol was capable of holding 100 prisoners. A new building was added to the site in 1832. It was designed by William Cole junior and contained 52 sleeping cells, male and female infirmaries and the matron's apartments. It lay north-east of the felons' prison, was H-shaped in plan and had between three and five stories because of the fall of the land. Further alterations and additions were made or proposed in the mid and late nineteenth century. Other changes were made in the 1850s. A new building, designed by Robert Griffiths of Stafford, was erected between 1867 and 1870. In 1881 Chester prison was divided to allow joint military and civilian use. It was discontinued in 1893 and sold to Chester County Council for £4,680.



Harrison's gaol is gone, with only the Gaoler's House and one row of cells surviving. The Gaoler's house still exists. It houses a small exhibition explaining the history of the castle and the cells can be viewed through an iron gate.

The Georgian entrance to the castle, which is more properly a propylaeum (pillared entrance) was also designed by Harrison, as well as the incomplete Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau and the Commercial News Room in Northgate Street, Chester (1808, later the City Club). Other new buildings at the Castle included the Assize Court with its massive and impressive portico. The dozen Doric columns are each a monolith 23 feet in height. When the first of these was raised, a lead casket (containing a Wedgewood urn) was ceremonially placed in the plinth - the urn contained coins of the day. An engraved brass plate was fastened over the cavity before the column was hauled into position. As the court's foundations are situated over the moat of the medieval castle, considerable structural cracking occurred (the same can be seen on the main gate of the castle today) and in early 1920s, when repairs were undertaken, the urn was found and under another column, a small brass snuffbox which had belonged to Admiral Lord Nelson. When the columns were re-erected in 1922, the urn was replaced with coins minted in 1921-22 added. Nelson's snuffbox was added to the collection of Cheshire Regimental relics.

Hemmingway described the buildings as follows in his "Panorama of the City of Chester" (1836).


 * The shire hall is a magnificent structure, not surpassed in the United Kingdom. The white free stone, of which the whole of the castle is built, is chiefly from the Manley quarry. The portico, composed of heavy masses of stone, is supported by twelve immense pillars, each of them 22 feet high, and three feet one inch and a half in diameter, of one block. The hall is in diameter 80 feet, in height 44, 50 feet wide, and of a semi-circular form ; twelve Ionic columns, each of one stone, support the roof, which is beautifully ornamented in stucco. The bar is in the centre of the court, and there is a passage from the gaol, by which the prisoners are brought to be tried, without causing any disturbance in the court. The whole has a good effect, and is admirably calculated to give due solemnity to a tribunal of justice.

Harrisons pupil, William Cole the younger, also worked at the castle, and was responsible for the design of the military hospital, a plain brick building erected in 1826 in Castle Street and shown on some early maps.

Harrison's last major commission, at the age of 82, was the design of the nearby Grosvenor Bridge over the River Dee. He did not live to see this completed. The Grosvenor Bridge was opened on 17 October 1832 (three years after the death of Thomas Harrison), by the Duchess of Kent, and a 21-gun salute fired from the Castle Square. A small stone model of the bridge can be seen in the castle moat to the south of the motte.

Ino and Bacchus (1837)
On the first landing of the rear entrance hall of the "County Hall Building" is found a statue of "Ino and Bacchus" by Richard James Wyatt. This was presented to the County Council by Councillor Charles Legh Shuldham Cornwall-Legh OBE DL in 1965. It was made in Rome in 1837 for the Councillor's Great-Uncle, George Cornwall-Legh MP of High-Legh Hall. The Wyatts included several of the major English architects across the 18th and 19th centuries. Said to be one of his finest extant works, a contemporary letter from Wyatt records that the ship carrying the sculpture from Rome to England was lost in a storm off Leghorn, but it was salvaged unharmed and was later delivered to his patron.

Strangely, the mythical Ino was also lost at sea. The (typically violent) Greek myth is that Bacchus (Dionysius) was the son of Zeus (Jupiter) and the mortal Semele and as an infant, entrusted to King Athaimas of Occhomenus and his wife Ino, sister of Semele, who was persuaded to rear the child in the women's quarters, disguised as a girl. The jealous Hera (Juno), sister and consort of Zeus, could not be deceived, and punished the royal pair with madness, so that Athamus killed their son Learches, mistaking him for a stag (or a ram in some versions). Ino's madness (or her attempt to escape the insane Athaimas) made her leap into the sea where she was transformed into a sea-goddess. Bacchus was then handed over to the nymphs of Nysa.

A plaster cast of the sculpture was exhibited at the "Great Exhibition". The catalogue lists it as follows:


 * IN the corridor separating the British and foreign picture galleries, we find works of the older English sculptors. Nollekens is represented by his ' Venus' and the busts of Pitt and Pox; Chantrey by his statue of Dr. Dalton and bust of Benjamin West; and Flaxman by his ' Aurora and Cephalus' and ' Fury of Athamas.' Before passing into the picture gallery, ipok at the ' Girl bathing,' ' Ino and Bacchus,' and ' Nymph and Cupid ' of Wyatt.

Bacchus is associated with drunkenness and abandoned frenzy, and is therefore invariably represented with grapes and wine, as he is here in County Hall. It was sold in 1854 for 378 pounds. Despite their adventures the statue is in remarkably good condition, with only half a grape chipped off from one of the bunches.

Napier House
Napier house is a detatched red sandstone building on the gun platform in the inner bailey. It was originally intended as as armory but was used as barracks and offices. According to the council records it was built in 1832 to a design by a Captain Kitson. However, the 1835 map shows a building of a different shape on the site - this may be the officers' barracks and judges' lodgings which previous were to be found in the south-east range of the inner ward.

Writing during this period (1836) Hemmingway describes the Agricola Tower as follows (again noting the figures on the walls):


 * ..its entrance is through a large Gothic door, probably of later workmanship. The lower room has a vaulted roof, strengthened with ordinary square couples. The upper had been a chapel, as appears by the holy water pot, and some figures, almost obsolete, painted on the walls. Its dimensions are nineteen feet four inches by sixteen feet six; the height also sixteen feet six. The roof is vaulted; but the couples, which are rounded, slender, and elegant, run down the walls, and rest on the connected capitals of five short, but beautiful round pillars, in the same style with those in the chapter-house of the cathedral, probably the work of the same architect.

At this time the old armoury, Harrison's southern wing (now called Colville House), was converted into accommodation for officers and judges. Prior to this, the Judges lodgings had been in the inner bailey. The Armory was not named Napier House at that time. Just by the steps of the mediaeval hall and the Judge's lodgings was a well. This has long since been capped, but in order to prevent vehicles driving over it, and possibly collapsing the cap, a ring of concrete bollards have been placed around its hidden mouth. In the winter of 2007/2008 a second well was discovered in the courtyard of the Military Museum after a vehicle collapsed the cap on that well

Chartist Riots 1839 and 1840
In 1839 the state of the country was unsettled and there was much talk of possible riots by the Chartists - and possibly even an attack on Chester Castle. General Sir Charles Napier wrote to Chester as follows:


 * Major Bayly, August 10th.—I attach little credit to the threatened attack on Chester Castle, yet be prepared. You must urge the town magistrates to swear in special constables and arm the pensioners; the gentlemen of the city may arm themselves also. Be most careful of the castle and cautious how you weaken your garrison in case of danger. Colonel Wemyss has orders if armed insurgents move from Hyde towards Chester to have them pursued by as strong a body of cavalry as he can spare.

By April 1840 General Sir Charles James Napier was moved to Chester from Nottingham with a force of cavalty and troops to quell riots. He initially tried to rent Bache Hall:

''' ..but did not succeed as he could not guarantee to rent for three years.
 * '''"Chester — A fine old town. Saw a capital house if we can get it, Baitche Hall. I feel light at heart with the idea of quitting the baker's shop in Wheelersgate Street Notts, though Charles the First did lodge there — loaves lodge there now."

His Biography The Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier (written by his brother William Napier) is rather disparaging about Chester:


 * In a country-house near Chester the overworked general hoped to recover health, but was debarred of that relief by the indecision of the Horse Guards, which forced him into a filthy unventilated lodging within the walls of that ancient and insalubrious city. This was a great vexation, but as usual treated jocosely. " We arrived here yesterday. Our house is as old as Babylon and apparently rotten, but seems pleasant for a town : we are like mites in cheese."

The Military Museum at the castle features an extensive display on Napier and explains how the urban myth about his signal "Peccave" (I have sinned) came about. This was not said by Napier at all, but was a suggestion made by a female latin student to a vicar, who wrote to the newspapers about it. The quote was used in "Punch" magazine and after that was falsely attributed to Napier.

The Combermere statue of 1865 and Tom Goulds grave
This equestrian statue of Viscount Combermere was unveiled in 1865. Victorian historians noted his capture of the fortress of Bhurtpore in India as his greatest achievement. Born Stapleton Cotton, he was the second son of Sir Robert Salisbury Cotton, Baronet of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire. In 1808 he joined Wellington in Portugal, where he shortly rose to the position of commander of Wellington's cavalry. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1809, but continued his military career. Following the Battle of Salamanca (22 July 1812) he received the personal thanks of Wellington. He was not present at Waterloo, the command, which he expected (and bitterly regretted not receiving) having been given to Lord Uxbridge. One of the last cannon shots fired on 18 June 1815 hit Uxbridge's right leg, necessitating its amputation above the knee. According to anecdote, he was close to the Duke of Wellington when his leg was hit, and exclaimed, "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!", to which Wellington replied "By God, sir, so you have!". Combermere was sent for to take over his command, and he remained in France until the reduction of the allied army of occupation. In 1817 he was appointed governor of Barbados and commander of the West Indian forces. Lord Combermere is mentioned in unverified stories of the Chase Vault as being a witness to its allegedly "moving coffins" while serving as Governor of Barbados.

The sculptor was Baron Carlo Marochetti, who was born in Turin, but raised in Paris as a French citizen. Marochetti followed French king Louis-Philippe into exile in the UK after the fall of the July monarchy in 1848. He mostly lived in London until his death in 1867. His statue of Robert Stephenson (installed 1871) still stands in the forecourt of Euston Station.

The plinth of the statue is incribed:


 * Front: ERECTED / IN HONOUR OF / STAPLETON COTTON / VISCOUNT CUMBERMERE / FIELD MARSHAL / . South Face: FLANDERS LINCELLES / THE DOURO. TALVERA. TORRES VEDRAS / LUSCAD. VILLA GARCIA. LLERENA. CASTRJON / FUENTES D' ONOUR. SALMANCA / CIUDAD. RODRICO. ELBODON / THE PYREENEES / ORTHEZ / TOULOUSE. Back: BORN 1773 / DIED 1865. North: CAPE OF GOOD HOPE / MALLVELLY. SERINGAPATAM / WEST INDIES / BHURTPORE.

Nearby is another monument to one of Wellington's soldiers, the grave of Thomas Gould, who is buried under the roundabout between Grosvenor Street and Grosvenor Road. The grave marker is shaped as a casket and inscribed:




 * IN MEMORY OF THOMAS GOULD LATE OF THE 52ND REGT. OF FOOT LI. DIED IN NOVEMBER 1865 AGED 72 YEARS 46 OF WHICH WERE SPENT IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY. HE WAS PRESENT IN THE FOLLOWING ENGAGEMENTS. VIMERA, CORUNA, CROSSING THE GOE NEAR ALMEIDA, BSACO, PUMBAL, REDINHA, CONDEIXA, FOZ D'AVOCA, SARUGAL, FUENTES DONOLE, STORMING OF CUIDAD RODRIGO AND RADASOS SALMANCA, SAN MUNOS (fallen prisoner), ST MILAN, VITTORIA, PYRENEES, STORMING OF THE FRENCH ESTABLISHMENT OF VERA (wounded), NIVELLE, PASSAGE OF THE NEVE ORTHES, TARBES, TOULOUSE AND WATERLOO. HE RECEIVED THE PENINSULA MEDAL WITH 13 CLASPS AND THE WATERLOO MEDAL. THE STONE IS PLACED OVER HIM BY A FEW FRIENDS

If Gould was with the 52nd at Waterloo then he was present at a key moment in history. The final action of the day saw Sir John Colborne wheel about the 52nd Light Infantry to outflank the never-defeated Old Guard of the French Imperial Guard as they advanced towards the British center to defeat Wellington's almost shattered and exhausted forces. As the French column passed his brigade, the 52nd charged, fired a devastating volley into the left flank of the Chasseurs and then attacked with the bayonet. The whole of the French Guard was driven back down the hill and began a general retreat. An earthquake of panic passed through the French lines as the astounding news spread - "La Garde recule. Sauve qui peut!" ("The Guard retreats [recoils]. [let him] save [himself] who can!"). Wellington, seizing the moment, stood in Copenhagen's stirrups, and (as a ray of sunlight supposedly fell upon him) waved his hat in the air to signal a general advance - his army rushed forward from their battered lines and threw themselves upon the retreating French - retreat became rout, and Napoleon's last hopes of a return from exile were extinguished.

There are several interesting links between Chester and Napoleon.

The Fenian Plot of 1867
In 1867, Chester Castle was the focus of an audacious plot by Fenians (supporters of Republicanism in Ireland) that ended in farce. Their plan was that around 2,000 men would infiltrate Chester and, under American-Irish command (by officers with experience in the American Civil War), seize a cache of rifles belonging to the Chester Volunteers. These arms would be used to storm the castle, at that time garrisoned by only 60 regular soldiers of the 54th Regiment. The castle arsenal contained 10,000 rifles and 900,000 rounds of ammunition, which the Fenians hoped to obtain. Once armed, the plan was to commandeer a train, take the arms to Holyhead, seize a streamer, sail to Wexford and raise a revolt in Ireland. Unsubstantiated additional features of the plot (possibly just scaremongering) included sabotage of the waterworks, the burning of Chester and the sacking of its shops.



On 11 February 1867, the plot was to put into action led by the American ex-confederate soldier John McCafferty (variously: M'Afferty) (who had been a member of Morgan's Raiders).


 * He was born of Irish parents in the State of Ohio, in the year 1838, and at their knees he heard of the rights and wrongs of Ireland, learned to sympathise with the sufferings of that country, and to regard the achievement of its freedom as a task in which he was bound to bear a part. He grew up to be a man of adventurous and daring habits, better fitted for the camp than for the ordinary ways of peaceful life; and when the civil war broke out he soon found his place in one of those regiments of the Confederacy whose special duty lay in the accomplishment of the most hazardous enterprises. He belonged to the celebrated troop of Morgan's guerillas, whose dashing feats of valour so often filled the Federal forces with astonishment and alarm.

However the Chester raid did not go as planned. The previous night the plan had been betrayed by John Carr, alias Corydon (why is this clever? - Morgan of Morgans Raiders fought at the Battle of Corydon), a police informer who had infiltrated the leadership of the Fenians in Liverpool. The cache of rifles had been removed to the castle and the garrison quickly reinforced by another 70 regular soldiers from Manchester.

Despite efforts to turn their men back, an estimated 1,300 Fenians reached Chester, in small parties from Manchester, Preston, Halifax, Leeds and elsewhere. Mostly, they discarded what few weapons they had and melted away. The next day, with nothing now happening, a further 500 household troops arrived by train from London in time for a tumultuous reception and breakfast at Chester hotels.


 * "The Attorney General, charging M'Cafferty with being the chief instrument, if not the originator of the contemplated seizure of Chester Castle, gave an outline of his movements, up to the date of his second arrest, based on the information of Corydon. The attack was to have been made on Chester on the 11th of February; but on Sunday information of the design was given by Corydon to the authorities, who were enabled, in consequence, to take the necesary precautions. "If that project," said the Attorney-General, had been carried out, it would be impossible to exaggerate the disastrous consequences to this country which might hare followed. "M'Cafferty went to Chester some days before the contemplated attack, and took apartments at the King's Head, in the name of Frederick Johnstone, and remained till Monday. On Sunday morning, the 10th, he was visited by two men, and later in the evening by seven more, "who had all the appearance of Yankees." The Government stated that between one thousand four hundred and one thousand five hundred strangers arrived in Chester, by train, from Crewe, and, other places, but the authorities there were not unprepared. M'Cafferty having ordered dinner for two o'clock, went out with Flood, and soon found that the matter was blown up. They then disappeared. Before leaving, M'Cafferty sent a messenger, one Austin Gibbons, to countermand the officers who were coming from Liverpool, by way of Birkenhead, and to say that the affair was blown upon. As might be expected, the officers found their way one after another to Ireland. On the 19th February, M'Cafferty and Flood landed at the port of Whitehaven, in England. They went to a hotel, where they stopped till the following day, when they sailed for Dublin in a coal brig, called the New Draper. They arrived in Dublin on the 23d day of February.

Those who escaped arrest included Michael Davitt. Only one arrest was made at the time, but some of the leaders were later apprehended. McAfferty, together with his friend and companion John Flood, were arrested on the 23rd of February, in the harbour of Dublin, after they had got into a small boat from out of the collier "New Draper," which had just arrived from Whitehaven. McCaffery was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment. What happened later in his life may be inferred from the newspapers of 1884 (although the report appears biased):


 * "PARIS, FEBRUARY 1884. Terror as a means to a religious, political or ideological goal has only one articulated justification, and it stays the same no matter what language expresses it. The Chester Castle mastermind, American Irish Captain John McCafferty, out of prison on amnesty, continues his campaign. His methods are now more ruthless. He is the untraceable "No. 1" who puts together the invincibles. Their hacking to death of T.H. Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish in the Phoenix Park in May 1882 was intended to be the start of a program of political assassinations in Ireland and England. They would bleed the enemy like a butcher sticks a squealing pig. Cut short after the Invincibles' first mission leads to his operatives being caught, McCafferty coolly slides away, and leaves a bogus "No. 1" in his place. As far as the authorities are concerned, McCafferty no longer exists. Yet, in Paris, planning and raising funds, he gives an interview to The Irishman. "Terrorism," McCafferty declares, is the lawful weapon of the weak against the strong."

=The 20th Century=

Victoria's Statue
This statue (details) was erected by public subscription in 1903. The cost of £1,360 was borne 2/3's by Cheshire and 1/3 by Chester. The majority of the subscriptions raised were allocated to a national monument to Queen Victoria, but some were kept for this local example. It was felt that there was a problem of how to honour the Queen on a county level, and it was decided that her monument had to stand in the county town. As the castle square is within the Chester city walls, but belongs to the county, not the city - this location solved the problem of how to appease both city and county dwellers. A model of the statue was approved in a meeting presided over by Earl Egerton and city dignatories and, at this meeting, it was decided that the statue would cost £1350, excluding its foundations. The statue was unveiled by Earl Egerton of Tatton (Lord-Lieutenant of the County), after failing to secure the presence of the Prince of Wales or another member of the royal family. The statue was designed by Frederick Pomeroy whose other works include the statue of justice atop the Central Criminal Court of England, commonly known as the Old Bailey.

A platform decorated in patriotic colours was erected in the castle square for the unveiling. Lord Egerton was dressed in his Lord-Lieutenant colours and was driven to the castle in an open carriage because the weather was good. He was received at the gates by the Guard of Honour, the First Cheshire and Caenarvonshire Artillery Volunteers, and the Second Earl of Chester's V.B. Cheshire Regiment. Many dignitaries and officers were present in uniform. The Mayor asked Earl Egerton to unveil the statue, but the wind blew the cover off before it was to be unveiled officially. This was the cause of great hilarity, but the Mayor had not seen the occurrence and kept requesting the Earl to unveil the statue. For many years, when soldiers from the Cheshire Regiment "passed out", it was the tradition to add a bottle of beer and a packet of fish and chips to the statue. If the soldiers were caught, they would be court-marshaled, but it was the highlight of the passing-out day.

The last military modification of the castle was made during the second world war, when the two rectangular slots were cut in the southern wall of the castle to defend Grosvenor Bridge.

The (ex) Council Offices
The large Neo-Georgian County Hall, used to house the offices of Cheshire County Council, was built between 1938 and 1957, (work was delayed by WW2). The building was designed by the county architect, E. Mainwaring Parkes, and involved the demolition of the gaol and houses in Skinner's Lane. The castle precincts (bounded by Castle Drive to the south, Grosvenor Street to the west and Castle Street and St Mary's Hill to the east - and not including the castle itself) were historically an extra-parochial area and today remain a civil parish, although with no inhabitants. Curiously, the parish was part of the Chester Rural District, and did not form part of Chester County Borough. This meant that County Hall was actually in the administrative county of Cheshire, despite being in the middle of the city. However, the Local Government Act 1972 saw it become part of the City of Chester district, along with the rest of Chester Rural District. In 1891, it had a population of 249, which had declined to 8 by 1971. According to the 2001 census, it had no inhabitants at all.

County Hall started a criticism of local government buildings in Chester which continues to the present day with the debates over the proposed Glass Slug. Architectural historian and critic Nikolas Pevsner commented of County Hall that it was: "not an ornament to the riverside view". It has been described elsewhere as "a meagre affair unworthy of its historic site and riverside setting" (Boughton, Picturesque Chester, no. 118). Presumably, the same was said of the Roman Fort, the Saxon Shire Hall, the various castles and gaols.

Chester Crown Court
In two weeks of April-May 1966, the infamous Moors Murders case was tried at Chester Assize Crown Court within the castle grounds. Both Brady and Hindley denied some of the murders and tried to blame an associate, Smith, for them. Police protection had to hold back crowds from getting at the police cars carrying Brady and Hindley from their cells in the Police Station located in the basement of the Town Hall. Jeers rang out when these cars appeared. On 6 May 1966, Brady was found guilty of the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans and was sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment (as the death penalty had been abolished a year earlier). Hindley was found guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans and given two concurrent life sentences, plus seven years, for harbouring Brady knowing that he had murdered John Kilbride.

Conclusion
(To the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "I am the very model of a modern major-general" - but I shall let those more musical work on the verse!)

Here is the very model of a modern Major-General,

With Fenians and Napier and frescos allegorical,

Tom Gould lying in his grave, quotes the fights historical

From Vimera to Waterloo, in order categorical;

Frontius, Agricola, Queen Vic and her mother too,

William the Conqueror, Henry IV and huge Duke Hugh

Alfred, Edgar, Aedelfrith, Daffyd and Tom Harrison

Brady, Hindley, Halley and Aethelfled the Mercian;

Edward Hammer of the Scots, Monty, Byron, Henry III,

Edward (of hot poker fame), and a Strange Lord of Derby,

John Howard and Llewelyn, Charles Murray Duke of Athol,

And by the gate the model of a modern major general.

Sources and Links

 * Antiquities of England