Victorian Chester

(work in progress)



The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of Continental Europe. Morally and politically, this period began with the passage of the Reform Act 1832. There was a strong religious drive for higher moral standards led by the nonconformist churches, such as the Methodists, and the Evangelical wing of the established Church of England. Ideologically, the Victorian era witnessed resistance to the rationalism that defined the Georgian period and an increasing turn towards romanticism and even mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts.

By the 1830's traditional manufacturing trades in Chester, including the making of clay-pipes, clocks and gloves were in serious decline, if not entirely extinct. Ship-building at the Roodee was entering a terminal phase and rope-making barely survived. Both of the two cotton mills had closed by the 1820's, so one of the leading industries of the Industrial Revolution had failed to establish itself in Chester. While in the 18thC. the City Fair's had been dominated by linen (the trade peaked in the 1760's), by 1830 the trade was dead. The reasons for the collapse of the linen trade center around the decline in the Chester/Dublin trade route, as its ends moved from Dublin to Belfast and Chester to Liverpool, as well as the substitution of cheaper cotton for linen. In the impoverished economy, areas away from the glamour of Eastgate Street and upper Bridge Street became progressively more decayed. Stanley Palace became "a decayed mansion", while Gamul House was divided into tenements. The polarisation of rich and poor was noted at the time - Hemingway thought that there were few places in the country where the gentry formed such a high proportion of the population and he was pleased that the lack of factories meant the absence of:


 * "the crowda of the lowest rabble they engender"

George Lee Fenwick commented:


 * "..for a long time [Chester] lay almost motionless upon the great tidal wave of progress which was sweeping past, but at length a movement became apparent, and even ancient Chester.. ..could no longer withstand the onward rush of events. The turning point dates from the accession of Queen Victoria." (A History of the Ancient City of Chester, 1896)

By 1840 Chester's older and wider trade connexions had withered and it had been forced into a diminished role servicing the local region. Modest new industries had appeared in the leadworks, steam milling, and ironfounding, but the heavy reliance on providing services for the hinterland implied a dependence on its fortunes and the need for improved transport connexions. From 1840 the railways provided the means by which that could be achieved.

Superpower
During the Victorian age, Britain was the world's most powerful nation, having inherited a vast commercial empire from the Georgians. Though not always effortlessly, it was able to maintain a world order which rarely threatened Britain's wider strategic and commercial interests. Britain's naval might was not openly challenged on the high seas between Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson's famous victory at Trafalgar in 1805 and the World War One Battle of Jutland with the German navy in 1916. The United Kingdom's population at Victoria's accession in 1837 was about 25.5 million, eight million of whom lived in Ireland. At her death in 1901, it had risen to 41 million, but that of Ireland had almost halved, mostly due to the devastating famine from 1845 - 1847, the result of a failed potato crop, due to the blight Phytophthora infestans.

At the dawn of the Victorian age Henry de la Poer Beresford, a wealthy British eccentric, arrived in Melton Mobray somewhat drunk and refusing to pay the entry toll grabbed some red paint and proceeded to "paint the town red". The Victorians would take this to an extreme and literally, on a global scale, "paint the map red" (actually, it is pink, so that it is possible to read the place-names). The Nineteenth Century saw Britain's interest and activity expand throughout Asia as Britain attempted to increase its commercial activities with China - often involving opium. Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaya were all taken to facilitate trade and economic opportunities in the region - especially between India and China. In some ways opium might seem to be to the Victorians what gin had been to the Georgians although it later became unfashionable, an attitude fuelled by sensationalist journalism and works of fiction such as Sax Rohmer’s novels. Thomas De Quincey, who stayed briefly in Chester, with his mother who lived among the ruins at St Johns inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West. That most rational of Victorian fictioonal characters Sherlock Holmes was more than a little fond of morphine and cocaine. The reality was probably that "opium dens" were not as commonplace as journalists make it appear, but in many parts of India the majority of British revenue was from opium, and the Victorians purchased tea and silk in China with the profits from Indian opium. These valuable and lightweight commodities were easilly transported, but also easilly pirated, and so a navy was needed to partol the seas and take action as needed. The navy had new ships driven by steam power, required coaling stations and ports for maintenance. Defence bases were also needed for the protection of sea routes and communication lines, particularly of expensive and vital international waterways such as the Suez Canal.

The Nineteenth Century also saw Britain's interest in Africa bloom as they attempted to control the maritime routes via the Cape and later the Suez Canal. As rival European powers expanded their own imperial interest in the continent, there occurred something of a 'scramble' which saw the majority of Africa come under direct European control in a remarkably short period of time. This gave them access to raw materials, especially ivory, rubber, palm oil, cocoa, diamonds, tea, and tin. Britain's interest in the Gulf and Middle East also intensified for the same reason - as Britain sought to control access routes to and from their "Jewel in the Crown"

The Railways


The Victorian era saw Chester transformed into something of a "Railway Town", but not one that benefitted from the industry that railways brought (such as Crewe). Rather the railways brought access to visitors and customers. "Railway Mania" was an instance of speculative communications frenzy in Britain in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern, similar to that of the "Canal Mania": as the price of railway shares increased, more and more money was poured in by speculators, until the inevitable collapse. It reached its zenith in 1846, when no fewer than 272 Acts of Parliament were passed, setting up new railway companies, and the proposed routes totaled 9,500 miles (15,300 km) of new railway. Few made a fortune, most lost their money. Much the same pattern was followed in the 1990s in the stock of telecom companies.

During the late 1830's there was much discussion of the possible route of an improved rail and sea communication with Dublin. With the passing of the Act of Union in 1800, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, elected Irish members of the new United Kingdom Parliament sought the same quality of travel and postal facilities as their fellow members from England, Wales and Scotland. Improvements continued slowly during Georgian Chester, and by the time Thomas Telford had completed his A5 road with improvements through Shrewsbury, Llangollen, Betws-y-coed, Bangor and his Menai Suspension Bridge in 1826, the London to Holyhead journey by road and ship was down to under 30 hours. Chester's Grosvenor Bridge was to a large part a response to Telford's A5 route and the percieved threat to the historic Irish trade in Chester.

The origins of the General Station came about as a consequence of the fragmentary nature of early railway development where many individual companies built relatively short lines that only later came to form strategic national routes. The major routes into the station were all completed within the decade from 1840 to 1850. Lines to Birkenhead and a month later the Crewe begain the railway age in Chester in 1840 connecting through to the national rail network and London Euston. In November 1846 the Chester & Shrewsbury line was opened from Ruabon to Chester and by 1848 it was completed through to Shrewsbury affording a direct link from Chester to London Paddington. The Chester & Holyhead Railway was authorised in July 1844, but by November 1846 it was opened only as far as Saltney. Completion to Bangor followed in May 1848, Holyhead the final destination only being reached in 1850 on the completion of the Brittania Bridge across the Menai Straits. The last major line to reach Chester General was the Warrington Line of the Birkenhead Lancashire and Cheshire Railway. This line was authorised in 1846 and opened in 1850. A branch to Whitchurch opened in 1872 and the line to Mold & Denbigh as early as 1849. In November 1846 the Chester & Shrewsbury line was opened from Ruabon to Chester and by 1848 it was completed through to Shrewsbury affording a direct link from Chester to London Paddington. The last major line to reach Chester General was the Warrington Line of the Birkenhead Lancashire and Cheshire Railway. This line was authorised in 1846 and opened in 1850. A branch to Whitchurch opened in 1872 and the line to Mold & Denbigh as early as 1849.

From 1841 to 1871 Chester enjoyed thirty economic boom years. The main evidence for this is the extent of migration to the city and population growth, but prosperity was also reflected in a large rise in the number of businesses and in the amount of rebuilding in the city centre. The arrival of the railways reasserted Chester's importance for transport and consolidated its function as a service centre for the region. A limited growth in manufacturing further diversified the economy. In choosing their route through the City, and given the main imperative of creating efficient communication with Ireland through the new port of Holyhead, the railway avoided the City Centre, locating Chester Station in an outlying area of marshy land known as Flookersbrook after the stream that ran through it. The land was occupied only by market gardens and a single row of cottages: one of which was occupied by a shoemaker who had to be forcibly evicted. The growth of Hoole followed quickly.

The Chartists
One of the themes which ran through Georgian Chester was the gradual development of electoral procedures, both for the parliamentary seats (dominated by the Grosvenors) and the Corporation. Both were the subject of what would now be seen as blatant corruption and malpractice, although that was commonplace at the time.

The passing of the Reform Act 1832, failed to extend the vote beyond those owning property, and the political leaders of the working class made speeches claiming that there had been a great act of betrayal. This sense that the working class had been betrayed by the middle class was strengthened by the actions of the Whig governments of the 1830s. Notably, the hated new Poor Law Amendment was passed in 1834, depriving working people of outdoor relief and driving the poor into Workhouses, where families were separated. It was the massive wave of opposition to this measure in the north of England in the late 1830s that gave Chartism the numbers that made it a mass movement. It seemed that only securing the vote for working men would further change things.



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. The Castle was next to Chester Gaol, where Chartists were held (as in the Chartist song "Chester Gaol"). 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 potential riots. He recorded his view of Chester:

Napier House at Chester Castle is named after him. Napier is famous for some of his other quotes in the tradition of British colonialism:
 * All the rogues, and fools and drunkards in the country seem collected, and the Row balconies are filled all day with idlers and well-dressed girls, young and old, looking into the streets from daybreak till dark. Such idleness I never witnessed as at Chester. My life has been long, it has but twelve years to run, and yet I never, in any country, witnessed such stupid idleness as in Chester. Those who go to the course have some fun, but those who hang over the Row balconies all day like old clothes, see nothing, hear nothing, do nothing.


 * "The best way to quiet a country is a good thrashing, followed by great kindness afterwards. Even the wildest chaps are thus tamed"

In 1843 Sir Charles James Napier led a small force (2,500) of native infantry and cavalry and one British regiment, the Cheshire Regiment, against the Baluchi Army of the Ameers of Scinde. The desert fortress of Emaun Ghur was destroyed, and then, on February l7th, 1843, the small British force defeated 30,000 Baluchis at Meeanee. A month later the Baluchis were defeated at Hyderabad. The province of Scinde fell into British hands, and The Regiment gained the honours of Meeanee, Hyderabad and Scinde. The honours of Meeanee and Hyderbad are shared with some Indian Regiments. That of Scinde is borne by the Cheshire Regiment alone.

There is the now known to be apocryphal tale that after Charles Napier defeated the Emirs of Scinde, he send a one word telegram to Lord Ellenborough – "Peccavī" (Latin for "I have sinned") he is said to have recieved the response "Vovī" (I have Oudh - actually "I have vowed", not very good latin). Unfortunately none of this is true. The Military Museum at Chester Castle features an extensive display on Napier and explains how the urban myth about his signal "Peccave" came about. This was not said by Napier at all, but was a suggestion made by Catherine Winkworth a latin student to a vicar (possibly William Gaskell), who wrote to the newspapers about it. The quote was used in "Punch" magazine and after that was falsely attributed to Napier.

The fighting in Scinde was an early stage in the "Great Game" a possibly fictitious political and diplomatic confrontation that supposedly existed for most of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century between the British Empire and the Russian Empire, over Afghanistan and neighbouring territories in Central and South Asia. There has been much speculation as to whether the "Great Game" was to lead onto the Crimean War, the first war in which steam powered armoured ships took part, and in which poison gas might have been used but for the refusal of Michael Faraday to develop them.

Slum Courts
Chester's poor lived in the many "slum courts" around the city. Often within a very short distance of proserperity. White Lion Yard, just off Crook Street was an example of a stable converted into "houses". In November 1879 the Chester Chronicle reported on a visit to White Lion Yard:


 * "We looked into one of those places – I cannot call them cottages – where Mother Brady resides. The poor old body, whose wrinkled and decrepit little form seemed made of parchment, and very dirty parchment at that, said she had been very ill since last Christmas. The walls were yellow with grease and her den is about six feet in width – next to it is a bulk of eight closets, separated from the houses by a passage of some two feet. An ash pit full to the brim occupied the centre and on both sides of the passage a filthy stream ran. The cottages may be compared to No 1c ell in the County Gaol, with the difference being that they are neither clean nor well ventilated."

Hannah Payne of sometimes of White Lion Yard was brought before the magistrate Major French over 100 times for a variety of "petty crimes": she eventually died on a bench in the Market Inn, aged 66, in 1874.

Immorality
Detail of "immoral" conduct in Victorian Chester is hard to find, possibly because of self-censorship by the press. In the 29th November 1879 issue of the "Chester Chronicle" we read that the slum courts of Chester are: "foul and filthy dens, the resorts of thieves, prostitutes, and drunkards", but no further detail is given. Brothel-keeper "Madam Chester" of Manchester was actually Polly Evans of Cefn near Wrexham, but little is known of her brief career in Chester, other than a vague suggestion that the services she offered included flagellation.

The "Chester City Police Reports Against Constables Book", 1842-69, shows that a significant number of officers were dismissed from the force for drinking with prostitutes, being drunk in a brothel and being drunk on duty. When prostitutes made reports against these same officers, documented in the newspapers, they were not recorded in the Reports book. There are also many examples of inappropriate comments and behaviours being displayed in the courtroom by the women being prosecuted, with a multitude of taunts and "improper" comments being levelled at the magistrates and Mayors. This perhaps demonstrates that the bench was dealing with "known" characters, however "known" is interpreted.

Salvationists and the Skeleton Army
During the Victorian period the link between Irish immigration, crime, and disorder in England was widely regarded by contemporary observers as axiomatic. In 1836 the Report on the State of the Irish Poor in Great Britain devoted four pages to the examination of Irish criminality, noting that:


 * "..the Irish in the larger towns of Lancashire commit more crimes than an equal number of natives of the same places,” and in 1839 the Report of the Constabulary Commissioners observed that in the towns of South Lancashire, “when large bodies of Irish of less orderly habits, and far more prone to the use of violence in fits of intoxication settled permanently in these towns, the existing police force, which was sufficient to repress crime and disorders among a purely English population, has been found, under these altered circumstances, inadequate to the regular enforcement of the law."

In Chester much the same prejudice existed...

The Gilded Age
The Edwardian period featured many innovations. Ernest Rutherford published his studies on radioactivity. The first transatlantic wireless signals were sent by Guglielmo Marconi, and the Wright brothers flew for the first time.

By the end of the era, Louis Blériot had crossed the English Channel by air; the largest ship in the world, RMS Olympic, had sailed on its maiden voyage and her larger sister RMS Titanic was under construction.



There has been much debate as to the causes of World War I and the actual picture is still considered unclear. The deepest distinction among historians remains between those who focus on the actions of Germany and Austria-Hungary as key and those who focus on a wider group of actors. Some historians maintain that Germany deliberately sought war while others do not. The main distinction among the latter is between those who believe that a war between the "Great Powers" was ultimately unplanned but still caused principally by Germany and Austria-Hungary taking risks, and those who believe that either all or some of the other powers, namely Russia, France, Serbia and Great Britain, played a more significant role in risking war than had been traditionally suggested. A view has been put forward that the cause was Jingoism. Marxist historians see it as the inevitable clash of capitalist systems, while Social Darwinists see it as a conflict over resources following a period of growth into new empires. Others have suggested that the development of the Dreadnought, a fast highly advanced warship with an "all big gun" configuration, showed the world that it was possible to build a navy which could compete with the long-standing British dominance of the seas. There are arguments and counter-arguments all ways.

People
Many people contributed to the development of photography and in Victorian times it became fashionable. In the March 1851 issue of The Chemist, Frederick Scott Archer published his wet plate collodion process. It became the most widely used photographic medium until the gelatin dry plate, introduced in the 1870s, eventually replaced it. The Victorians embraced phtography as an alternative to painted portraits, so it is here, in the Victorian gallery that photographs first appear.

Related Pages

 * Chester Station: how the railways transformed Chester;
 * Town Hall: where Victorian sculpture depits their view of history;

Online

 * THE CHARTIST PRISONERS, 1839-41
 * THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF INDIAN OPIUM AND TRADE WITH CHINA ON BRITAIN’S ECONOMY, 1843–1890;
 * "When all hope is gone";

Chester in Other Historical Periods



 * Before The Romans;
 * Roman Chester;
 * Dark Ages;
 * Medieval Chester;
 * Tudor Chester;
 * Stuart Chester and Civil War;
 * Georgian Chester;
 * Victorian Chester;