The Mystery Tour



As an alternative to the Millennium festival trail this is a hike round sites of mysteries and supposed hauntings. The complete route is approximately 3 miles (5200m) long and can take anything about 2-5 hours, depending on detours and pubs (it also takes in most of the main shopping streets). The tour route begins and ends at Chester Town Hall and Tourist Information Center, but as it is a circular route one can start anywhere along it.

The route is not suitable for wheelchairs and push-chairs as there are lots of steps and one remarkably steep street.

The Mystery Tour Map
=The Mystery Tour=

The Civic Trust did a marvelous job with the Millennium Trail, but we could not resist the urge to go one better and add some more stops along the way and a few, optional "side adventures". If there is a link in the title then you can follow it to find a Chesterwiki reference with more information, such as the page on the Town Hall, etc.

Start at the Tourist Information Office by the Town Hall in Northgate Street


If the Town Hall is open to the public then the inside is worth seeing, especially for the stained glass depictions of the Earls of Chester, some paintings, the original Magistrates Court and a few little things like the portrait of Owen Jones. You could spend half an hour in here at least looking at all the details. In the now disused Magistrates court a flight of steps leads down from the "dock" to the cells beneath. There is still a Police Station under the Town Hall, but parts of it have become the Tourist Information Office, whose staff have sometimes reported an "evil presence". These parts of the Police Station included the offices of the Chief Inspector, second in command of the Division, the Detective Inspectors Office and the office of the Superintendent in charge of the Division. Close to these offices were the cells in which the "Moors Murderers", Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, were held during their trial at Chester Castle. The trial was held over 14 days beginning on 19 April 1966, in front of Justice Fenton Atkinson. One often-mentioned feature of the Town Hall is that the clock tower only has a clock on three of the four sides, and that the clock face facing Wales is missing because the inhabitants of Chester "would not give the welsh the time of day". However, the Cloth Hall in Ypres (built in 1260, destroyed in WW1 and rebuilt in 1934), upon which the Town Hall is based, also only has a clock face on three sides of the tower. The actual clock is recent (having only been installed in 1980), as plans for the inital purchase of a clock (originally intended for Woolwich Arsenal) were cut for cost reasons and the discovery that the clock would require an hour of winding each day!

Walk up the Northgate Street past the Coach House
There is an amusing tale of the "Coach and Horses" from the 1990's. During one of the mystery play seasons, the boy playing a rather major part in one of the plays nipped in for a pint during the intermission and (still dressed in white robes) was promptly accosted by the police for under-age drinking. He uttered the startling reply "You can't nick me - I'm Jesus". After a further exchange of words (and the intervention of a few other customers who had taken the same opportunity for a drink in the intermission), he was released and was able to return to the stage for the second half of the play. An even stranger tale dates fom 1988 - when a sad and gloomy looking old man entered and booked a room for the night. He then went out saying he wanted a walk before retiring. He never returned. Enquiries with the police later revealed that the man who supposedly signed the register, and gave his home address, had in fact died some eight years earlier.

A little way further up the street, the cellar of the Pied Bull is said to be haunted by the ghost of a cellarman from 1609 and two guest rooms are said to be haunted by a pair of chambermaids from 19th Century. The Chester coroners reports from 1609 confirm that:


 * "John Davies .. casually fell down a flight of stairs leading to the cellar belonging to the Pied Bull, and with a knife in his hand .. and died"

As for the chambermaids, there is no record of their sudden death as is supposed to lead to hauntings, so maybe they are just the "strapping chambermaids" that were already immortalised by Borrow.

John and the chambermaids are not the only ghosts to be found in The Pied Bull:


 * "A stableman fell asleep in the stables attached to the pub and burnt to death in the fire caused by his lit pipe and he still makes his presence felt in the ground floor rooms," explains Mary Ann Cameron, the author of "Chester: A City of Ghosts".

The Pied Bull claims to be the the oldest continuously licensed premises in Chester. In 1533 it was known as Bull Mansion, and a coach and four started to run from here to Birkenhead in 1784. The inn is mentioned in the Admiralty Records of 1804 as the inn where an armed and drunken Reverend Lucius Carey was attempting to gain access, when he was detained by the ex-Beadle. Carey got his revenge by having his detainer press-ganged. On the King Street wall of the Pied Bull is what looks like a sculpture based on the "Chester Imp" at the Cathedral. This is a part of the now defunct "Chester Imp Trail" and, not, as some seem to think, a "Fire Insurance Mark".

Across King Street is the Red Lion. This pub moved here in 1795, but there may have been an earlier pub on the site (the pub claims to have been there since 1600). While it has been described as "notable by its black and white style of the Tudor period" the building is unlisted and the pillared arcade at the front probably dates to the 18th Century at the earliest (it clearly has the arcade in McGahey's 1855 "Balloon View"). It has its own story of a haunted cellar, a tale "emphatically retold by a previous landlady".

Numbers 63-65, formerly the "Bell" This is the best example, other than in The Rows, of a medieval town house in Chester. It's ghost is that of a woman whose lover died in the Civil War.

Firemen are sometimes superstitious and both the appliance room and the control room were said to be haunted by the bewhiskered "Fireman Jack" dressed in an old-fashioned Fireman's uniform complete with brass helmet:


 * One night the Fireman manning the control room looked through the control room door's observation panel and said he saw Jack sitting on the old turntable ladder and smiling at him. He was so frightened that he immediately threw the bells on and turned out the watch. When the rest of the watch reached him they said he was white as a sheet.

Pass through the gateway to reach Abbey Square
Hemingway describes Abbey Square as follows:


 * On passing through the arched gate way we enter into Abbey square. On the right hand is a dead wall inclosing the episcopal palace a good stone building but as destitute of magnificence as it is of elegance. This edifice was wholly rebuilt by Bishop Keene out of his private property at an expence of £2200 soon after his promotion to the see in 1752. The east side of the square contains only two good houses one at each extremity the interval being occupied by smaller dwellings. The north and west sides are filled up with elegant buildings occupied by some of our first quality. The two end houses adjoining the gate stand on the site of an old edifice called the prison house On pulling down the latter about five years ago a narrow cell was discovered on the first floor from which all light was excluded in which it is said that martyr to popish cruelty, George Marsh, was immured previous to his execution at Boughton.

George Marsh definitely does not seem to have had a pleasant time while in Chester, but it seems that he was imprisoned at the Northgate rather than here (which was even more cruel). However, the cellars of the 1771 town house at 3 Abbey Square lead down to an even lower cellar under the pavement of Abbey Square itself (which has coursed sandstone walls beneath a probably C18 segmental barrel vault of brick), and is reputedly an ecclesiastic court cell.



This elegant square was built in the mid 18th Century on the site of the Abbey Bakehouse and Brewery. The column in the central garden is said to have come from the old Exchange building in 1756 (it probably wasn't).

==On the opposite side of the square take cobbled Abbey Street down to Kaleyard gate and get up onto the walls. Follow the walls along to the Phoenix Tower==

If asked to pick a favorite tower on the Chester walls, the Phoenix Tower makes the short-list. This spot was was originally very near the site of a Roman corner tower, and in Roman Chester the "Deanery Field" by the tower would have been the site of Barracks. The tower was once known as the "Newton Tower", because it overlooked the hamlet of "Newtown". The north-east tower of the legionary fortress underlies the present tower.

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. Above the doorway to the lower chamber the carved phoenix dated 1613 is the emblem of the City Guild of Painters, Glaziers, Embroiderers and Stationers who occupied the tower as a meeting place. 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 Walls on a clear day). However, that is where the battle had a major phase and where its name comes from.

Continue along the North Wall to the Northgate
The best preserved parts of the walls of Roman Chester are below the footpath between The Phoenix Tower and the Northgate. They are best viewed from the Northgate end. Over the years this section of the walls, with its precipitous drop to the towpath below has seen a fair-share of tragedy, with murders and accidental falls from the walls. This part of the city defenses is one of the most unassailable, with the deep ditch and overhanging cliff presenting an almost impossible barrier to assault on the city. Over the years there have been several deaths at or near this spot. Hemingway writes of one lucky escape from before 1831:


 * "Before I leave this gate I shall mention a circumstance that occurred near the spot luring the time the footway was repairing which may be considered extraordinary. A young gentleman who was mounting the wall at the east end in order to save the trouble of going round lost his balance and fell over. He alighted on the canal towing path below which in depth is little less than twenty yards and then rolled into the canal from whence he was speedily extricated having neither sustained a broken limb or a serious fracture. It appears his fall had been broken by striking against a projecting portion of the wall about midway in his descent which alone can account for the little injury he received."

Not everyone was so lucky. Noting in his chronicle of the year 1826, Hemingway writes:




 * "The body of a young man named Thomas Reeves was discovered in that part of the canal nearly opposite the Phoenix Tower and not more than a yard from the shore on the towing path side. The circumstance of a severe wound on the head the tattered appearance of some parts of his apparel and above all the finding his hat upon the walls at the distance of about eighty yards from the place opposite to which he was found naturally suggested a suspicion that after a struggle with some murderous villains he had been thrown over the parapet wall."

And for 1816 Hemingway records:


 * "The body of Samuel Williams collector of the Northgate tolls found in the canal under the old house of correction. It was supposed he had been murdered"

The cutting in which the canal runs reaches its deepest beneath the Northgate. The new Northgate was built in place of the former medieval gatehouse in 1810 by County architect Thomas Harrison for the City Council. There appears to have been a bridge of some sort here since the middle-ages - the City Treasurer's accounts for 1569 contain an entry which reads: "for making the north-gate bridge new, great joists, thick planks £4/3s/2p". The present bridge dates from around c1790 and its construction may have been supervised by Thomas Telford. Hemingway describes the older Northgate as follows:


 * This ancient gate adjoining which was a mean and ruinous gaol was an inconvenient and unseemly pile of building. It consisted of a dark narrow passage under a pointed arch with a postern on the east side and the entrance to the prison. Immediately under the gate way at the depth of some thirty feet from the level of the street was a horrible dungeon to which the only access of air was through pipes which communicated with the street. In this frightful hole prisoners under sentence of death were confined; itself a living death.

Certain debtors who were confined to this prison had privileges. In records from the time of Henry VII, it is stated that any freeman of Chester, who had been imprisoned for debt could, upon swearing an oath before the Mayor and Sheriffs that he would pay as soon as her was able, and reserving for himself "only mean sustenance", had the right to be discharged from custody. Fifty years later any freeman imprisoned for dept could petition the Mayor and aldermen and declaring his inability to pay, was allowed to live in what was termed the "Free House" (or "Franchise House"), and was free to walk at large within the "liberties of the house" which extended along the walls between the "Phoenix Tower" and the Watertower, and "towards the Corn Market as far as Bell Yard". These persons were also allowed to attend divine service at "Little St John's" (St John's Hospital), but not otherwise to enter any dwelling.

The original Roman corbelling can be seen running along the walls at the level of the path. This is much worn, but originally each corbel was believed to include a carved face of a bearded man. The "tea rooms" which is the first in the small range of buildings fronting onto the walls just before Northgate is said to be haunted: the ghost, apparently, is that of a previous chef who had attacked a waiter "many years ago".

There is no quick way down to the tow-path (see Canalside) from this section of the walls. One either needs to retrace one's steps to the wooden stairs before the Phoenix Tower or continue to the staircase of locks well beyond Northgate. However if time permits a walk along the tow-path below is an interesting experience (providing it is not closed for maintenance).



Continue along the walls and up the steps to the Eastgate Clock
The houses are the only surviving pre-16th-century almshouses in Chester. They were built in about 1650 (as part of the restoration of Chester following the Civil War) and extensively repaired and renovated in 1968-9. They are not the "oldest council houses" in the country - the first recorded almshouse was founded in York by King Athelstan; the oldest still in existence is the Hospital of St. Cross in Winchester, dating to circa 1133.


 * Nine Houses at English Heritage;
 * Nine Houses on Wikipedia;



Go through the gate in the walls and through the Roman Gardens, then turn right to reach the Amphitheatre
The remains were discovered in June 1929 by amateur archaeologist W J "Walrus" Williams (1875-1971), while examining a pit dug (in the cellar of an Ursuline Convent) for the installation of a heating system. Excavation began in 1939 but was halted at the outbreak of WW2, and did not resume until 1957. The Victorian Dee house, which covered part of the site, was demolished in June 1958 and excavation commenced in 1960. The Amphitheatre was eventually opened to the public in August 1972.


 * Amphitheatre at English Heritage;
 * Amphitheatre on Wikipedia;
 * The Amphiteatre on "Cheshire Now";



Cross to the other side of the Amphitheatre, and head towards St Johns Church
If St Johns is open (generally after 10:00) then the inside is well worth a visit - it is often called "Chester's hidden gem" and even if you are not a "church" person the atmosphere is very historic and a lot of effort has gone into signage explaining what everything is. Obviously, time your trip to avoid services. They also do the cheapest cup of tea in Chester.

Tradition ascribes the foundation of St. John's to Æthelred, king of Mercia (674–704), in 689. In 906, the Abbey of St John the Baptist was founded by a later Æthelred, Earl of Mercia. In 1075, Peter de Leia, bishop of Lichfield removed his episcopal see to Chester: the old St John's just would not do as the home of an important bishop, and so had to be rebuilt. In 1085 De Leia died and his successor Robert de Limesey translated his see from Chester to Coventry. The full article on St Johns charts its remarkable history and refusal to simply fade away.




 * Parish of Chester history page - their own page;
 * Chesterwallsinfo on St John;
 * Pastscape - the English Heritage page;
 * St Johns on Wikipedia;
 * Gravestones at St John's;

From the ruins at the far end of St Johns church head down the slope towards the River Dee and the Hermitage


One of the most unusual buildings in Chester is the Anchorite's Cell or 'Hermitage', a small sandstone building by the River Dee. The present building is believed to date from the mid 14th century and was one of two 'cells' built as religious retreats for reclusive monks or hermits. Until the reformation it belonged to the collegiate Church of St Johns.


 * Hermitage on English Heritage;
 * Hermitage on Wikipedia;

Turn right and walk along the River Dee towards the Norman Weir and the Old Dee Bridge
Originally the site of a causeway across the River Dee. The weir was built in sandstone in 1093 for Hugh of Avranches. It was designed to provide a head of water for the medieval mills on the river. The mills were demolished during the 20th century and the weir was restored to serve the Chester City Council's hydro-electric power station, which operated from 1913 to 1939.




 * Chester Weir at English Heritage;
 * Chester Weir on Wikipedia;

Enter Bridgegate and arrive at the Bear and Billet

 * Perhaps its time for a drink!

Unfortunately, St Mary on the Hill is not normally open for visitors, which is a pity, because the inside is very spectacular.


 * St Mary on the Hill, at English Heritage;
 * St Mary on the Hill, on Wikipedia;



Cross the Chester Castle car-park. At the far end is a barred gate. That is as close as you can get to the Agricola Tower these days.

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

Head for the Castle gateway.

 * Chester Castle on Wikipedia;

From the Castle gateway head up the road past the equestrian statue
Built in 1991 to replace the old Magistrates’ Court in the Town Hall.

Head back past the Grosvenor Museum and down Castle Street towards Gamul House
The Grosvenor Museum is worth a diversion before heading off to Gamul House in Bridge Street. Parts of the present Gamul House date from around the early 16thC, with the oldest visible parts being the wall and fireplace behind the present bar. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666 and a Chester Assembly ruling on building in 1671, the medieval frontage of Gamul House was replaced by a brick façade.


 * Gamul House at English Heritage;
 * Gamul House on Wikipedia;
 * Sir Francis Gamul on Wikipedia;



Keep going to Park House
Park House was built in 1715, for Elizabeth Booth and later became the Albion Hotal, then the Talbot Hotel. It briefly housed the Assembly after the Exchange Fire and before the completion of the Town Hall. Later it became the Library before that moved to new premises. The undercroft is well below street level. The former Row level central entrance has projecting Tuscan porch with seven repaired steps to a sheltered landing between curved wing-walls of painted stone and a further four steps from landing to entrance.


 * Park House at English Heritage;
 * Park House on Wikipedia;

Walk a few steps further up to Tudor House
Probably dating from 1603, extended to rear early-mid 17thC and altered in detail 18thC and later. The facade is a combination of Tudor and Georgian architecture with the lower half of the building being more Georgian in character and with the timber framed upper half being typically Tudor.


 * Tudor House at English Heritage;
 * Tudor House on Wikipedia;

Arrive at The Falcon
Number 6 Lower Bridge Street is the surviving half of a still more spectacular 13th Century town house which originally extended further down Lower Bridge Street. The timbers from the former east span of the roof, now reused in the cellar ceiling, date from c1180. The building was altered in the later Middle Ages, the 16thC, in 1626 and in the 19th and 20thC.


 * The Falcon Inn at English Heritage;
 * The Falcon on Wikipedia;

Reach the Bridge Street Rows and continue past the Three Old Arches (possibly visit St Michael's)

 * Three Old Arches at English Heritage;
 * Three Old Arches on Cheshire Now;
 * Three Old Arches on Wikipedia;
 * Three Old Arches by Chester Tourist;

Keep going until you reach the High Cross and Number 1 Bridge Street


There a quite a few other interesting buildings in Bridge Street.




 * 1 Bridge Street at English Heritage;

Now turn right into Eastgate Street. Walk down to Brown's of Chester

 * Browns of Chester at English Heritage;
 * Browns of Chester on Wikipedia;



The Old Bank
1859-60

Built by George Williams


 * The Old Bank at English Heritage;
 * Dixon and Co and Parr's Bank on the RBS website;
 * The Old Bank on Wikipedia;

St Werburghs Street



 * St Werburgh Street at English Heritage
 * St Werburgh Street on Wikipedia

Old Music Hall

 * Old Music Hall at English Heritage;
 * St Nicholas Chapel (the old Music Hall) on Wikipedia;

St Werberghs Row
Built in 1935. By Maxwell Ayrton - Ayrton trained in Chester. The pillar "boxed off" in wood has sunk by 15cm over the years 2000-2014 as there is a quarry filled with loose sand and soft clay to a depth of 26m down to bedrock. Sandstone from the 16thC. quarry was used for a cathedral rebuilding program.


 * St Werberghs Row at English Heritage;

The Cathedral

 * The Cathedral at English Heritage;

Head back into the Town Hall Square and turn left, walk down Northgate Street to the Commercial Newsrooms
Fleshers' or Fleshmongers' Row ran westwards to Goss Street; beyond that the undercrofts and galleries at Booth Mansion (nos. 28–34) and at nos. 38–42 show that it continued at least to Crook Street, if not to Trinity Street. Medieval arches spanning the walkway at nos. 28–30 provide the earliest structural evidence of a gallery connecting adjacent holdings. At Booth Mansion 'Mr. Eaton's Great Room' gave space in the 1750s for such diversions as "rope dancing, fire eating, and a learned dog".


 * Watergate Street (north) at English Heritage;
 * Booth Mansion on Wikipedia;
 * Booth Mansion on Pastscape;



Head down Watergate Street to Bishop Lloyd's House
Bishop Lloyd's House (or Bishop Lloyd's Palace) is at 41 Watergate Street, and 51/53 Watergate Row, Chester, Cheshire, England. It is designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner considered it to be "perhaps the best" house in Chester. The buildings were extensively restored in the 1890s by T M Lockwood and again in the 1970's by the then Chester City Council. Lockwood replaced the eastern street entrance with a staircase and entry is now gained through the western tenement only. At row level, the brackets supporting the storey above are carved with bearded giants, beasts and an owl; there are also lighter brackets shaped as figures. Much of this bracketwork was moved around by Lockwood, who also replaced the 18thC sash windows with the mullioned and leaded windows seen today. Lockwood appears to have done the work in at least two stages, as surviving photographs show that the mullion windows were installed before the changes to the row staircase. The house is maintained by the Chester Civic Trust and it is open for visitors on some weekdays.

Just next to Bishop Lloyd's House is a covered entrance-way which leads to the street to the rear. Just at the end of this alleyway, to the right and over the wall is the base of a Roman pillar down in the bottom of a "hole".


 * Bishop Lloyd’s Palace at English Heritage;
 * Bishop Lloyd’s Palace at Wikipedia;
 * Bishop Lloyd’s Palace at Chester Civic Trust; (for visiting times)

Keep going down Watergate Street and cross the inner ring road and down the hill to Stanley Palace
Stanley Palace was built in 1591 on the site of the former Black (Dominican) Friary. It was built as the town house for Sir Peter Warburton, a local lawyer and Member of Parliament. When he died in 1621 the house was inherited by his daughter. She married Sir Thomas Stanley who gave his name to the house. After the Civil Wars James Stanley (The 7th Earl) was held under arrest at the house, prior to being transported to Bolton for execution. The historical building had three bays, but in 1928 the 17th Earl of Derby passed the house over to Chester City Council on a 999-year lease: the Council commenced work to restore and extend the building, adding the fourth bay on the site of the demolished building which had previously defined the "narrow entry".


 * Stanley Palace at English Heritage;
 * Stanley Palace on Wikipedia;

Head on down Watergate Street to Watergate House
Watergate House was built in 1820 as a town house for Henry Potts, Clerk of the Peace for the County of Cheshire. It was designed by Thomas Harrison. In 1907 it became the headquarters of Western Command. It then became the headquarters of the Cheshire Community Council, and has since been used as offices. The plan is probably unique. The entrance leads through a domed circular corner lobby to the octagonal central hall with a pair of pillars, west, supporting a gallery-landing. The stone main stair south has moulded iron balusters. Conversion to offices has left structure and detail largely undamaged, most notably the west range of rooms. Unfortunately, it is not open to visitors.

The Potts family had a country estate at Glan-yr-Afon, Denbighshire (also built by Harrison), and produced one of the firsts rider to win the "National" (on "The Duke"). Arthur Potts, second son of Henry was a noted railway engineer and lived at Hoole Hall.


 * Watergate House at English Heritage;
 * Watergate House on Wikipedia;

Continue down to Watergate then turn right along the walls. Keep going until the Queens School
The Queen's school was established for middle-class girls in 1878 and moved to a new building in City Walls Road in 1883. Evidently there was a school on the same site beforehand as John Broster writing in 1821 states:


 * On a piece of ground next to the Infirmary, is erected a commodius building for the reception of of a certain number of girls, who are maintained and educated, so as to qualify the for servants. It is supported by voluntary contributions and subscriptions.


 * Queens at English Heritage;
 * Queens on Wikipedia;



Continue along the walls, over the railway bridge to the Watertower

 * Note the old Infirmary as you pass it;
 * You can get down off the walls here to looks at Watergate Park and the Gloverstone;


 * Northgate Locks at English Heritage;

Arrive at St John's Hospital and the Northgate
The "new" Northgate was built in 1810 by Thomas Harrison.




 * St John's Hospital on British History Online;
 * St John's Hospital on English Heritage;
 * Bridge of Signs on English Heritage;
 * Bridge of Sighs on Wikipedia;
 * Northgate Bridge on English Heritage;
 * Northgate on English Heritage;
 * Northgate on Wikipedia;

Rufus Court

 * 1 Abbey Green at English Heritage;
 * 1-2 City Walls at English Heritage;

Blue Bell

 * Blue Bell at English Heritage;

Odeon

 * Odeon Buildings at English Heritage;