A Chester Lightning Tour



This is a whistle-stop self-guided tour round the central streets and history of Chester. It starts at the High Cross and is best done during the day, when things are open. It is not suitable for wheelchair users and includes quite a few sets of steps and one very steep street. There is much more information about Chester on this website which can be accessed by clicking on the underlined links embedded in the text. This can give information on a street, an individual building, a specific person or a historic period.

Clicking on the icon on the right will bring up a map of Chester from which it is possible to select a layer showing "listed buildings". Maps are inserted in the text below with "waypoints" marked. The tour can take most of a day, especially with diversions into pubs and cafes (of which there a many), shops (many of those too) and museums (of which there are several) and it is possible to wander off the route to see more. However this tour will take in most of the sights in the city center. Industrial and canal history is better covered along the Canalside tour. The weather in Chester can be changable and some parts of the route, especially on the walls can be quite exposed in the rain.

If you prefer an official guided tour then these can be booked at the Tourist Information Center - and possibly also through their website.

Not everything is open all of the time and sometimes parts of the walls are closed (they sometimes collapse or need repair for other reasons). The same is true of some buildings: the Medical Museum, Chester Castle, Stanley Palace and the Town Hall have very variable opening times. If you particularly want to see something it is as well to plan ahead and check in advance.

If you need to eat on the way round Chester there are a huge number of choices. This is not a restaurant guide and places to eat come and go quickly in Chester so any guide would be out of date rapidly.



The Cross - Start of the tour
The tour starts at the High Cross a sandstone pillar which stands at what was once the center of Roman Chester. The Romans appear to have started building a substantial legionary base here about 74 AD, as dates from around that time have been found on lead ingots and water pipes. The initial builders were Legio II - the second legion, but they were later replaced by Legio XX (the twentieth) who possibly occupied the site until about the year 400. Chester appears to have been occupied after the Romans left and may have been an early ecclesiastical center. The much rebuilt Church of St Peter at the cross stands on the site of the Roman headquarters building - knowns as the Principia, and was probably initially built from the ruins of that structure. Just inside the door of the church is a surviving example of a medieval fresco, a little further in is a font with an interesting palindrome on the underside of the lid and nearby is displayed a bible from around 1579.



Back outside St Peter notice the clock on the church tower (it may or may not be correct as it is notorious for breaking down). Chester later became famous for its Clockmakers and St Peter had the first public clock in Chester, an early one was installed in about 1585. The clock that is there today probably dates from 1813. St Peter's bells are considered unsafe to ring, but Chester's enthusiastic Town Crier, whose office possibly dates back to 1553, still performs at the Cross in the summer months, and brings his own bell.

The religious and military histories of Chester are somewhat intertwined. After the Romans left during the so-called "Dark Ages", a battle was fought at Chester where the losing side was accompanied by a large number of monks. A few hundered years later, when a slowly forming England was subject to invasion by Vikings the city was re-fortified by Æthelflæd the warlike daughter of Alfred the Great. Æthelflæd followed a pattern of creating fortified communities with religious establishments which were also both mercantile and andministrative centers. She often re-used Roman sites. Chester was then strategic because of its proximity to the Irish Sea and North Wales, but the location has been on trade routes since prehistory. Chester lies between mineral rich North Wales (a source of copper in the Bronze Age) and the salt springs of eastern Cheshire. Chester would maintain its strategic importance after the Norman Conquest when it was one of the last places to fall under Norman rule. The powerful Norman Earls of Chester were granted powers that made them almost independent of the King. The Earldom was eventually taken back by the crown and was generally held by the kings eldest son, to give some experience of rule. Some kings favoured Chester greatly: Richard II drew his personal guard from the area and may have hid his Royal Treasure nearby. Its royal connections were not always of benefit, during the Civil War the city was subjected to a long siege and an intense bombardment. After the siege ended the cross was broken down and what is seen today is a reconstruction from the 1970's, which may contain some original parts.

From the cross it is possible to look down three of the four main streets of Chester: Eastgate Street, Bridge Street and Watergate Street. These follow the lines of the original Roman streets in a standard pattern which the Romans re-used time and again. It is also possible to see that the visible streets are arranged on two levels. These are The Rows which developed during the medieval period. While much of what can be seen looks like it dates from the Tudor period it is mostly late Victorian - sometimes called "mock Tudor" or, perhaps more accurately "English Vernacular Revival". There is little else like the Rows in the entire world and just how they came to be in the form they are is discussed elsewhere on this site.

Northgate Street - Commercial News Rooms
Turning into Northgate Street one enters the fourth of the streets which meet at the cross, which again follows the line of the Roman layout. To the right is an example of the Rows and it is fairly obvious that the "half-timber" construction is not original but is largely decorative. Sometimes this is well done, as on the left a little further up the street, but in other places the quality can vary. Stop just after the sandstone building on the left (with the three arches on the front) and take a look around.



The pale sandstone building is the Commercial News Rooms, built in 1807. It was designed by the Chester Thomas Harrison a neo-classical architect who had studied in Italy. This was a club where the gentlemen of Chester would meet up, read the newpapers and no doubt do business deals. Conveniently, there was a bank on the ground floor. The bank used to print its own notes and some of them feature this building. The next row of buildings are in the elaborate black-and-white style of John Douglas another Chester architect, and were built by Douglas and his pupils around 1900. Thus, while the black and white buildings appear older than the sandstone club, they date from about 200 years later. There are some surviving early black and white buildings in Chester, but none of them are on Northgate Street. The figure of an elderly gentleman in the middle of the black and white building is St Crispin. He was the patron saint of shoemakers and these buildings are known as "Shoemakers Row" as this was once the site of many shoemakers shops. Boot and shoemaking were once major industries in Chester which had several other trades associated with leather. In the middle ages the guilds of the city included Skinners, Tanners, Glovers, Cordwainers (shoemakers), and Saddlers (as well as many others). The guilds were noted for putting on the Chester Mystery Plays, a series of religious plays which were enacted every four years and performed on carts which were dragged around the city, including down this very street. Each play was performed by a specific guild starting with "The Fall of Luficer" performed ny the Tanners and ending with "The Last Judgement" performed by the Weavers. The whole performance took three days, and if you watched it all you got time off from Purgatory. The plays are still performed every four years, although they were banned from around 1575 until revived in the 1950's. The reasons for the ban included the belief that they were superstitious relics, but the ban came at a time (just before Shakespeare) when plays were subjected to political censorship.

The city guilds continued to play an important part in the history of Chester. Unfortunately a part of this involved a certain ammount of electoral corruption, which was also quite common elsewhere. For much of its history the only people allowed to trade in Chester were the "Freemen" of the city. There were exceptions for the annual fair. Freemen were supposed to have a vote in the election of the mayor and the aldermen. This was before there was general right to vote for everyone, including for women. In practice, there were times when the aldermen, variously known as the "Assembly" and the "Corporation" effectively elected themselves and elected the local MP. At various times the elections became very corrupt, with vast sums being spent on beer and other forms of persuasion. Matters got so bad that in the late 19th century Chester was actually forbidden from electing an MP for several years by an Act of parliament. These attempts to exclude ousiders from having any business in Chester may be one reason why Chester was largely bypassed by the Industrial Revolution.

Street theatre in Chester did not only include the Mystery Plays. Nowadays there are plenty of buskers and sometimes other performance artists, but the tradition is a long one. A local legend holds that when a Norman Earl of Chester was holed-up in a castle in Wales by the Welsh the buskers and vagrants of Chester were marched to his aid - making a lot of noise and leading the Welsh to believe that they were an army on the march. For many years the minstrels (and prostitutes) of Chester would be licenced once a year at the Minstrel Court, after a procession which started near Shoemakers Row. Some carvings of minstrels can be seen on the end of the Row, which is the next waypoint.

Northgate Street - Market/Town Hall Square
Chester's Market Square (or Town Hall square} is dominated by the Town Hall and the first views of the Cathedral on this tour. before heading into the square it is worth a short detour to take a look at the remains of the "Roman strongroon" which is cut into the red sandstone on which Chester stands. The strongroom was the place that the Romans stored both money and the legionary regalia including their eagle standards. Roman soldiers fell into two broad groups - the Legionaries, who were very well trained heavy infantry and the Auxiliary troops who included light infantry and cavalry. Early in the Roman empire only the citizens could become legionaries and it was a job for life. The Auxilliary troops were recruited from around the empire and could become Roman citizens at retirement. Many of the troops who ended up in Britain came from the Balkans, and retired in Britain when their term of service ended. Tracing the genetics of people living in some parts of North Wales actually shows that their ancestors probably came there in Roman times and it is likely that their descendents formed the basis of a part of the "Romano British" society which persisted after the Roman empire ended. Early writers such as Nennius recorded the Roman ancestry claimed by later Welsh rulers.

It was under the Romans that Christianity first arrived in Britain and after they left Chester may have been a significant ecclesiastical center. The Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain soon after and initially had their own religion, but Christianity survived in Wales. At length, the Anglo-Saxons started to convert and there was something of a competition to see whether the "Celtic" church or the Church of Rome could gain the most converts. Again, early writers mention this with Bede laying the blame on the practices of the Celtic church for the defeat of Welsh armies at the Battle of Chester in 616.



The "Venetian Gothic" Town Hall is frequently open to visitors (and it is free). Allow half an hour to explore the building. Inside are a series of sculptures which claim to tell the history of Chester. They are full of sometimes hillarious errors, and are covered in some detail on the page relating to the Military History of Chester. There is a lot more to see in the building, including a series of portraits of the Grosvenors who had a significant part to play in the government of Chester from the Civil War onwards. The stained glass on the main starcase depicts the Norman Earls of Chester who ran their lands with a great deal of independence from the Crown and some of whom played a significant part in wider history. There is also a painting of HMS Chester who had a role in the battle of Jutland. The Town Hall clock is notorious for not having a face towards Wales - as popular legend states that Cestrians "would not give the Welsh the time of day", but this is untrue: the Town Hall only got its clock in 1980 and the building is based on the "Cloth Hall" in Ypres, which only has a clock face on three sides. The Tourist Information office is located on the ground floor of the Town Hall. Various tours of the city can be booked here and maps, books and other souvenires are available.

There is an option to visit the Cathedral later in the tour which returns to the Market Square in 20-40 minutes (it might be worth checking on tour times now if you want to take the tour to the top). The next waypoint is the Abbey Gateway.

Abbey Square
Abbey Square is entered by the Abbey Gateway. Be sure to look upwards at the vaultwork above the entrance passage. This gateway may have been built by Richard the Engineer, who worked on the castles of North Wales for Edward I. Richard did well in Chester, gaining the franchise of the Dee Mills and becoming mayor. He is the first Architect of Chester who can actually be named. The square itself is surrounded on two sides by Georgian buildings that have fortunaely not been converted to "mock Tudor". One of them was briefly the home of Charles Kingsley the Victorian churchman and writer. Kingsley is a complex figure who championed Charles Darwins's theory of "natural selection" for what were probably all the wrong reasons. Today, many of his views would be considered racist.



Kingsley is not the only famous writer to have lived in Chester. Thomas Hughes the author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" also lived in Chester for a while. Some lesser known writers also lived in the city. In the medieval period there was Ranulph Higden, a monk who wrote the Polychronicon, one of the first history books ever to be printed. Robert of Chester was another famous monastic writer and translated several important works from Arabic into Latin, including several works on mathematics. Writers on Chester itself have included those who produced guidebooks and histories of the city, many of which can be found on the Books page, with links to freely downloadable texts. Modern writers continue to produce guidebooks to the city, some of which are good and others not so good.

There are several good views of the Cathedral from the walk to the next waypoint. Much of what you see is Victorian "restoration" which added a lot of complexity to what was initially quite a simple building. The red sandstone of Cheshire was laid down just before the time of the dinosaurs and is of variable building quality. The darker red stone tends to turn back to sand with the effects of weather, although the paler stone is generally more durable. On this tour round Chester it is worth observing which building are built of the paler stone and noting that they are better preserved.

The next waypoint is the Kaleyard Gate in the City Walls.

City Walls (Roman)
There is a guide to the entire City Walls elsewhere on this website, and there is more information on other websites such as "A Virtual Stroll Around The Walls". This tour does not include a full circuit of the walls. In a hurry, you can circumnavigate the roughly two mile course of Chester's walls in a little over half an hour - but you will miss a lot of interesting detail. An hour-long gentle stroll will give you time to see the walls. With a few diversions and halts, two hours at the most will get you round. This part of the tour follows a portion of the original Roman course, although the walls have been rebuit and repaired many times over the years.



At the kaleyard gate it is possible to get up onto what was originally a Roman portion of the City Walls. If you take a brief detour through the gate a go slightly to the right it is possible to see some of the larger blocks which are believed to be remains of the original walls of Roman Chester. Then return through the gate and head north along the wall walkway keeping the stone parapet to your right. The first Roman fortifications at Chester would have been made of turf and topped by a wooden pallisade. That was similar to the "marching camps" which the Roman legions would build at the end of each days march, pulling up the stakes again the next day and carrying two of them each. There may have been such a marching camp at Chester before the Romans built their permanent fortress. Later, the turf walls were replaced by stone. Over the years the walls have been repaired and restored many times, at first by the Romans, later by the Saxons, and by various others especially after they took a battering in the English Civil War.

The next waypoint is the Phoenix Tower also known as "King Charles Tower". This would have been the site of a Roman corner tower of which no trace remains. To the left is the Abbey Green which was once the site of some of the accomodation for the legionary troops. To the right is a portion of the Chester Canal and maybe a narrowboat or two. The Chester Canal was once described as "the first unsuccessful canal" which is a little unfair as it eventually became quite a success. It is a broader than average canal and originally was intended to link Chester with the salt towns to the east. Unfortunately rival canal interests managed to ensure that it did not link-up with the larger canal system and the investors in the canal found themselves seriously out of pocket. The canal was saved when it was extended to the north and south to form the Shropshire Union Canal. The Canalside page describes its route through Chester and something of the life of the canalfolk (at times quite alcoholic) can be understood from the page on the mysterious death of Charles Moston.

Phoenix Tower
The Phoenix Tower takes its name from the phoenix carving on its side, the emblem of the City Guild of Painters, Glaziers, Embroiderers and Stationers who occupied the tower as a meeting place. Also known as: "King Charles' Tower", this north-east corner tower was probably built in the 13th Century origin, was altered in 1613, damaged 1644-6 during the Civil War, largely rebuilt 1658 and during the 18th Century (around 1773), and repaired thereafter (by 1838, the tower was described as being in a dilapidated condition), most recently in 2012.

Chester was besieged during the Civil War when it took the royalist side. The city was an important port for Ireland, from which Charles hoped to bring in extra troops. Also, the leading merchants of the City relied on the grant of monopolies from the king. By 1645 the Parliamentary forces had tightened the siege around Chester had taken Bristol and ther was a fear that the city would soon fall. Charles brought his army to Chester in an attempt to relieve it, but the Parliamentary forces also marched further troop towards Chester and there was a major battle nearby. The inscription on this tower reads:


 * 'KING CHARLES STOOD ON THIS TOWER SEPT 24th 1645 AND SAW HIS ARMY DEFEATED ON ROWTON MOOR'

So, can you see Rowton Moor from here? - hardly at all. The site of the "Battle of Rowton Moor" is over 2.5 miles away, in roughly the same direction as Beeston Castle (which can be seen from the tower on a clear day). It was a part of the final stage of the battle that Charles witnessed from the Phoenix Tower. At some point the King withdrew to the Cathedral tower, but even this was not safe - "skylined" sgsinst the westering sun, a captain standing next to him was shot in the head by musket fire from the victorious Parliamentarians who took residence in St Johns Church tower. Charles survived, and fled Chester only to be to be captured later and beheaded on Tuesday 30 January 1649.

As you leave the Phoenix Tower you pass the spot where Edmond Halley, of comet fame, was possibly sitting when he worked out how a rainbow was formed.

The next waypoint is the Northgate. To get there there simply follow the walls which now run along the top of a considerable drop down to the canal. The cutting is partly the defensive ditch of the Roman and partly blasted out to accomodate the canal. At some point in late Roman times this section of wall was repaired and the builders used a large number of earlier Roman tombstones from the legionary graveyard which lay outside of the walls. It isn't certain why they did this: possibly they were Christianised Romans who did not consider it was wrong to do so. One benefit of this is that the stones were fairly well preserved and can now be seen in the Grosvenor Museum which is further on in the tour.

Northgate
The bridge was the site of Northgate prison, but the new Northgate was built in place of the former medieval Gatehouse in 1810 by County architect Thomas Harrison. The view from the top of the Northgate is a little blocked by buildings but still worth it, especially if you go a little way forward so the view opens up. The hills in the distance are the first range of the Welsh mountains.



There are a few interesting details to spot from the bridge. If you look northwards out of town you can just see a building with a glazed observation coupola on the roof. This was once the home of an early owner of one of the Newspapers in Chester, John Fletcher. Several of the early guidebooks to Chester were written by editors of newspapers, including the guidebook and history by Hemingway (1831) and that by Hanshall (1816). Downloadable texts of these books are available elsewhere on this site and they provide a useful insight into the Chester (and the attitudes) of the past. Next to the gate is St John's Hospital which was almshouses to which a school was later added. The bell on the corner of the building is from SS Galeka: she carried troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps to the Gallipoli Campaign, landing the 6th and 7th Bns., Australian Imperial Force, at Anzac Cove on the morning of 25th April 1915, later converted to a hospital ship and sunk before the end of the war. A little beyond the canal bridge at Northgate is a narrow stone arch which spans the chasm containing the canal. It is best seen from the bridge crossing the canal outside the Northgate or from the tow-path below. This is a flimsy-looking structure with no railings, and there is no means of accessing it at either end. The bridge cost £20 ($30) to build in 1793, and was designed by Joeseph Turner. It originally went from the Prison to a nearby chapel (in St John's Hospital). Condemned criminal were executed at Northgate and the bridge gave them the last opportunity to visit a church, hence it's name - the Bridge of Sigh's. Finally, on a lighter note, take a close look at the chimney of the building between the walls and the canal and see if you can spot the fish and the rat.

Northgate Street
From Northgate it is possible to head on along the walls past a few more towers to the Watertower and look at the Canal and Boatyard but this shortened tour does not do that. Instead drop down off the walls into Northgate Street and head back towards the city center. On the right is the old Fire Station which is now a French-style restaurant. Many of the shops in this part of Northgate Street are small independent retailers - down a narrow road to the left is Handel Court with more small shops. It is named after the composer George Frederic Handel who stayed in this part of town when putting the finishing touches to his "Messiah" while on his way to Ireland for the first public performance. Handel wrote the music for the piece whereas the words were proposed by Charles Jennens (who was educated at the King's School in Chester). Chester was the port for the sea-crossing to Ireland although the crossings could be rough and were frequently delayed by poor weather. Chester's port was some distance to the north of the city as the River Dee had by this time silted up and large boats could not always reach Chester.



Because Chester was a port it was also a major "coaching center" before the advent of the railways. There were several coaching-inns located in Northgate Street and evidence can still be seen of them in the form of a sign on the corner of King Street which gives the distances to other towns. Some of these journeys would take days over poor roads. George Borrow stayed at The Pied Bull in 1854 before touring Wales on foot, something which he documented in his book "Wild Wales".

Storyhouse
"Storyhouse" is housed in a former Odeon cinema and is a major Chester arts venue. There is plenty of information as to "what's on" just inside the door. The building also houses Chester's public library. This includes a full set of street and business directories dating back many years, which is useful if you are in Chester for reasearch purposes.

Just before reaching the Town Hall there is a pile of old stonework. The large column is often listed in guidebooks as being Roman, but it isn't. On the wall behind the stonework are two round yellow signs. This indicate that there is an "Emergency Water Supply" hidden somewhere underground hereabouts in case of fire and signs like this have been in use since WW2. There was a very major fire very close to this spot when the previous Town Hall burned down prompting the building of the new one.

The next waypoint is the entrance to the Cathedral

Cathedral
Chester Cathedral stands to the east of the square. It is free to enter and there are paid guided tours. One of the best paid tours is the "Cathedral at Hight" which involves an ascent of the tower accompanied by one of the well-informed guides. It takes about an hour - but expect lots of steps and some fairly narrow passages. On a clear day the view from the top is spectacular. Back on the ground floor is the somewhat battered shrine of St Werburgh a member of the Mercian royalty died about the year 700 and whose relics were brought to Chester in about 873. Her cult was promoted by Æthelflæd when she re-fortified the city in about 907. Exploring the rest of the Cathedral can easilly take another hour.

St Werburgh Street
The next objective after the Cathedral is the Eastgate, but it may be time refreshment. The Cathedral has a cafe in the old refectory which housed the King's School after the Reformation. One interesting feature is the pulpit set in the wall. There are alternatives nearby.

In St Werburgh Street itself is another one of John Douglas's compositions - it takes up almost an entire side of the street and features the first and last Norman Earls of Chester and Queen Victoria, who looks a little out of place on a "Tudor" building. Keep an eye open for a shield on the wall to the left with a "Liver bird" and a grass-hopper. This was the emblem of Martin's Bank which once occupied the building. Many of the more interesting buildings in Chester are banks: they wanted to appear that they had money and also wanted to look impressive so as to inspire confidence.

Eastgate
The Eastgate and its clock are among the most famous, and most photographed, structures in Chester. The bridge which it forms over the road can be accessed by stairways on either side and from the top it is possible to look along the full length of Eastgate Street and, past the cross, into Watergate Street.

Just before the Eastgate on the left is a bank with a lot of coats of arms on the frontage. This was once the Grosvenor Club and the ground floor was the home to a Welsh bank. The coats of arms are based on those of the historic counties of Wales and it is possible to work out which is which county. The sandstone cameo is Owen Jones a Welsh foundling who did well in Chester and left some apparently almost worthless land to the city. It turned out the land was rich in lead ore and worth a good deal more than was first thought.

The clock was designed by John Douglas and commemorates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria (1897), although the clock was only unveiled on the 24th May 1899. An illustration from "The Builder" of June, 1882 may indicate that Douglas had the idea that a clock should be placed here when he was building the bank and Grosvenor Club at that time, as a clock, with stone supports is shown standing atop the Eastgate. Only in 1992 was an electrical mechanism fitted to replace the original wind-up mechanism. The original clockwork is in storage at the Grosvenor Museum. In 1996 the clock faces were restored with their original colours. The clock tower has four, 4ft 6 inch dials that were originally gas lit, but are now powered by electricity.

The next waypoint is the Newgate. It is possible to reach it by walking along the walls from the Eastgate

Newgate
From the top of Newgate there is a good view of the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre and beyond that the "other" cathedral in Chester: St Johns. Down to the left is the remains of a Roman corner tower. At this point the Roman and the Saxon walls meet. The walls of Roman Chester would have headed westwards alon the north side of Pepper Street, but the Anglo-Saxons extended the Roman Walls down to the River Dee. creating a much larger defended space and taking advantage of having the river along one side. The objective of the Romans was to provide a military base for a professional army and protect them against the local populace. The Anglo-Saxons were creating a fortified town which could also accomodate the people living within about a days travel in times of raids by the Vikings and others. So the Anglo-Saxons needed more space.



There are some steps on the far side of the gate which descend to the street level. One minor diversion here is to take the lift to the top of the car-park. It is located in the tower with a stone lion on top of it. The view from the top is not as good as that from the top of the cathedral, but it is free and there are far fewer steps.

The next waypoint is in the center of the Amphitheatre.

Amphitheatre
There is a more detailed guide to the Amphitheatre elsewhere on this site. For the purposes of the trail it is sufficient to say that the things to see are the reconstructed remains of the "stands" surrounding the arena, the shrine to Nemesis by the north entrance, the mural and the east extrance. The simple way to see them is to walk clockwise from the entry signage to the north entrance, go down the steps to have a look at the shrine to Nemesis then walk over to inspect the mural. From there, turn left and climb the steps in the east exit.



St Johns
St Johns is often said to be "Chester's Hidden Gem"; It's not really that hidden, being right next to the Amphitheatre and plainly visible from the banks of the River Dee, you can't really miss it. The church has ruins at both ends, of which more below. It reputedly sells the cheapest cup of tea in Chester and also has a second-hand book-stall (a row of pews) which is worth a rummage. Donations of second-hand books and hard cash are always welcome. The inside of the church is quite different to the outside and it is like stepping into another world. St Johns was the original Cathedral of Chester before the Norman Conquest. Just when it officially lost Cathedra; status is not clear. Allow at least half an hour to explore it.

St John's history is notable for a chronic shortage of building and repair funds and for parts of the structure falling down (it steadfastly carries this tradition on today). It is also steeped in ecclesiastical history and was known for a notable relic as well as being one of the most often painted churches in England. In 1468 the central tower collapsed destroying a great part of the choir. The steeple was rebuilt in 1470. At the end of the nave two bays are wanting of which the foundations only were laid. Of two large western towers at the west end the foundations only of the southern had been laid and this tower was in fact, never built. The northern tower had made more progress. The lower story is Norman but the tower was completed in the time of Henry VII (1485 - 1509). By about 1550, the church was reduced in size. The transepts were entirely destroyed at the Reformation when the size of the church was reduced to adapt it for parochial use only. Those parts of the church which were no longer in use had the lead removed from their roofs and "given" to the king, while all of the bells save one were removed.

The rebuilt central steeple lasted until 1572, when the steeple again collapsed. The church was kept in good condition in the earlier 17th century, but suffered severe damage, especially internally, after its capture by the parliamentarians. During the siege of Chester (1645-46) in the Civil War, the north-west tower was used to mount a gun battery. The weight of the guns and the shock of their discharge must have done much to weaken the structure. Packets of papers were also shot over the city walls, encouraging the towns folk to surrender. When this failed, snipers were placed at the church tower's summit. From here they were able to take pot shots at anyone seen in the streets beneath them. After the Civil War attempts at repair were made, but, on Good Friday (15th April), 1881 the north-western tower collapsed.

There is a lot to see here and some useful signage is scattered around the interior. There are also some volunteer guides who may or may not be there. This is a very short guide to St Johns, which has a much richer history than presented in this brief tour guide. Standing near the door may well be one of the "Chester Giants". In Medieval and Tudor times, Chester’s magnificent Midsummer Watch Parade was renowned throughout the country. First held during the mayoralty of Richard Goodman in 1498, it was organised by the City Guilds and took place in the years when the famous Chester Mystery Plays were not performed. The outstanding features of the show were the Giants – enormous structures made of buckram and pasteboard and carried by two or more men. Giants were a common feature of Tudor pageantry in England and Europe, but Chester was unique in that the city paraded a whole family of Giants. The Midsummer Watch Parade survived much longer than the now world-famous Mystery Plays, which were banned in 1575 and not revived until recent times. In 1599, Mayor Henry Hardware prohibited the Parade and ordered the Giants to be broken up. The first new giant was taken for a walk through the streets of Chester at midsummer 1989. The parade at midsummer that year was the first for over 300 years.

Tradition ascribes the foundation of St. John's to Æthelred, king of Mercia (674–704), in 689. In the vestibule of the church is a stained glass window showing the legend of how he selected the site guided by a white hart. Curiously, churches associates with white harts occur all along the River Dee. They are also generally associated with holy wells or springs. Inside the church proper one finds a completely different building to what appears outside. The lower parts are Norman and date from when Peter de Leia, bishop of Lichfield (consecrated in 1067) removed his episcopal see to Chester in 1075 and the church became a cathedral. The old St John's just would not do as the home of an important bishop, and so had to be rebuilt. The basic plan of the new church followed the standard Norman design, with a choir to the east, a central crossing with a tower above, transepts, a nave to the west and a pair of towers at the western end. However not all of this was to be completed. To the left of the entrance are some stone cross heads. These are probably older than any part of the present church building.

A memorial window to the memory of local archirect TM Lockwood (by Shrigley and Hunt, 1901) is in the north aisle of St Johns. Appropriately, the window depicts the architect Hiram Abiff and is full of masonic symbolism - such as the pillars labelled "Boaz" and "Jachim" and the tiled floor. Nearby, on the pillar, is a surviving medieval painting. The west window is by Edward Frampton (1845-1928) and was given by the 1st Duke of Westminster in 1890. The window depicts twelve scenes from the history of the church. The top right pane shows a boat on the River Dee. This is a reference to Edgar the Pacific, (c. Aug 7, 943 – July 8, 975) who was the great-grandson of Alfred the Great and was famously crowned both at Bath and at Chester (in 973).

The ruined eastern end of St John calls to mind the Anglo-Saxon elegy "The Ruin": "Wrætlic is þes wealstan, wyrde gebræcon.." (Wondrous is this worked-stone, by fates broken..) it has even been suggested that the poem is about Chester, although the ruins are early Norman. Note that there are both round arches and "pointed" arches - the pointed (ogival) arches are a characteristic feature of Gothic architecture and were first used in India and the Middle East. In one of the arches of the ruined choir an ancient oak coffin can be seen set into the masonry. Within the coffin is inscribed "Duft to Duft" ("dust to dust" - based on the wording of the funeral service in the Book of Common Prayer). Signs in the churchyard state that the coffin and inscription dates back to the 11th Century, was found during the 19th Century by grave digger Benjamin Carter and that the rector at the time (Richardson) ordered the coffin to be set high into the wall. However, others say that the coffin is actually 15th Century and was found in the Nantwich area, having been brought to Chester as a curiosity - and that Richardson brought the coffin from a boat in the canal in 1813.

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. It is now a private dwelling and there is no access to the grounds.



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.

Suspension Bridge
The Queen's Park Suspension Bridge connects The Groves with the affluent Queen's Park area of Chester. This is the second bridge on this site, being built in 1922/3 to replace an earlier bridge. The 1923 bridge bears a striking resemblance to the 1922 Porthill Bridge in Shrewsbury - so much so that many people, even Chester residents, might have problems telling which was which in photographs. However, Chester's bridge has real shields rather than the tiny ones in Shrewsbury and a huge sign saying which one it is. Unfortunately, it appears that the arms of Ranulf de Meschines and Ranulf de Gernon have been switched around on the suspension bridge.

Young people today have a habit of placing padlocks on bridges. These typically have a romantic message written on them - and are often known as "Love-Locks". Notable examples of such bridges include those in Paris, Serbia (where it started) and elsewhere. In 2013 there were a bondage-lovers paradise of such locks on the Suspension Bridge, and then, they started to disappear. It turned out that a local resident had taken it upon himself to remove them. However, exposure in a "U-Tube" video seemed to end that. Flash-forward to 2014: as reported in the Chester Chronicle, Cheshire West and Chester Council have stated that the locks could make the bridge dangerous, as they could make the bridge "sway" in high winds. The Chester bridge had just 330 locks attached to its railings - weighing a total of about 24Kg or 3.77 stone. Undoubtedly fears were sparked after part of the Pont de Arts in Paris collapsed under the weight of 700,000 of the locks in 2014. To be fair enough, this is not about an extra 25kg of weight in the case of Chester, but more about the wind-resistance that the locks might create. Like many suspension bridges the Chester bridge exhibits some "spring" when walked across. It is a common belief that any troops which cross it are required to "break step" to prevent excessive vibration.

The Groves
The riverside below St. John's church was corporation property and used as a public walk by 1717. In the mid 19th century the rise of tourist excursions to Chester turned the Groves into a popular resort. Pleasure boats could be hired on the river by the 1850s, and in the later 19th century band concerts throughout the summer became a major attraction. The concerts were at first arranged by a private committee, which built a bandstand in 1913, but were taken over by the city council in 1927. In 1745 the Dee Side walks extended from Souters Lane to a point east of St Johns. By 1783 the promenade was called the Groves. In 1881 the river bank from Souters Lane to the Old Dee Bridge was faced with rubble from the fallen tower of St Johns church, and the avenue was extended to the west, an improvement carried out at the expense of Charles Brown to commemorate his mayoralty.

Boating excursions upstream are available from landing stages at the Groves. There are short trips and longer ones. These were originally to view the newly completed Gothic Eaton Hall, and were an attraction by 1821.

Roman Gardens
The lower part of the Roman Gardens was re-modeled in 2000 to provide a path down to the River Dee - a path which is snakes back and forth like the snake in the roman symbol for medicine. In fact many of the plants here are medicinal herbs, some of which would have been known to the Romans. The upper part of the Roman Gardens contains a selection of Roman Relics collected from around the City, none of which originally stood on this site. Most of the columns that can be seen in the Roman Gardens came from the exercise hall of the Roman bath house (thermae). They were once 6 meters tall and supported the stonework of the central section of the hall. The largest column currently in the Roman Gardens came from the assembly hall of the headquarters building (Principia). The Roman Gardens also houses a reconstructed hypocaust which was the Roman system of under floor heating. An under floor cavity was filled with hot air from a furnace to heat the rooms or baths above. Several hypocausts have been found in excavations in Chester. The hypocaust in the Roman Gardens has been reconstructed using the pillars (pilae) recovered in 1863 from one of the rooms in the main bath building (thermae) of the Roman fortress. In the Roman Gardens there is a semi-reproduction (done in 2000 by artist Gary Drostle) of a Capricorn Mosaiic (discovered at St Michael's Row, 1909-10) which actually survived in Chester until the 1960's when it was destroyed by contractors. The capricorn was the symbol of Legio II - the first unit to be stationed at Roman Chester.

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.

City Walls (Saxon)
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.

Follow the walls downhill to the Bridgegate and the Old Dee Bridge which is the next waypoint.

Old Dee Bridge
The first bridge here was Roman.

The next waypoint is the Minerva Shrine. This is just across the River and is worth the walk both to see the shrine and for the views up- and downriver and back towards the City. If you want to skip that then jump down to Medical Museum.

Minerva Shrine
The Minerva Shrine in Edgar's Field is the only surviving rock-cut Roman shrine which is still in situ at its original location in the whole of western Europe. It dates from around AD 79, during the time of Vespasian, when the same area was being used to quarry stone for the construction of the Roman fortress (and, years later, possibly also Chester Castle) just over the River Dee. It may have been the shrine of quarry workers, or it may have been used by travelers about to cross the River Dee (by a ford) - Minerva was Goddess of both craftsmen and travelers.