Roman Festival Trail



=Visiting Roman Chester=

There are a lot of Roman remains in Chester. Some are well marked and easy to find, others not so. This is a brief guide to the ones which can be found by the interested visitor. The map above (based on a 1950's map of Chester) can be printed off for reference when visiting. There are other "trails" round Chester including the Millennium festival trail which take in some of the same locations as well as many non-Roman locations. This Roman Trail "starts" at the Amphitheatre but can be joined anywhere. Descriptions here are only brief - much more information can be found on the Roman Chester page. For a detailed guide to the remains we would suggest "Roman Chester - City of the Eagles" by David J. P. Mason, copies of which can be purchased at the Grosvenor Museum.

The Amphitheatre


No-one knew for certain that Chester had an amphitheatre until 1929, when a large curved wall appeared while an underground boiler room was being built onto the south side of Dee House, an eighteenth-century town house used as a convent school for girls. A local schoolmaster, W. J. Williams (his nickname was "Walrus") was the first to recognise what this meant. Williams identified a stretch of masonry exposed in June 1929 as the outer wall of the amphitheatre. The curving wall and the buttresses were the main features that suggested that this was the amphitheatre, the ruins of which proved to be well preserved. In the early 1930s, parts of the western entrance, the outer wall, the arena walls and the arena itself were discovered.

Near-by non-Roman

 * St Johns - Chester's first Cathedral with spectacular ruins at either end and interesting stained glass;

Corner Tower on the City Walls



 * Leave the Amphitheatre and head towards the Newgate (the arch with a tower at each end). Next to the Newgate is the Peppergate or Wolfgate, and next to that is the base of the Roman corner tower, in front of the City Walls.

The Roman Corner Tower might give the impression that these towers were located on the outside of the City Walls. In fact the Corner Towers were located on the inside of the walls, and in centuries of re-building the wall has moved the line of the wall backwards.

The remaining base of the former south-east angle tower dates from the late first to early second century. It is purple-grey ashlar sandstone and trapezoidal in plan. Parts of a base-course are visible, then 2 weathered plinth-courses and parts of an ashlar facing course above, with the rubble core and parts of the coursed rubble inner face rising a little higher. The outer face is segmental in plan to coincide with the quadrant corner of the former fortress wall. Also present are part foundations of an adjoining chamber within the former wall-line west of the tower. The remains of the tower and adjoining fragment of the Roman wall are bonded together, hence built at the same time.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Pepper Street - site of a Spitfire factory from WW2;
 * The City Walls

Roman Gardens



 * Cross the road from the corner tower and enter the Roman Gardens.

This collection of pillars and other Roman remains were in fact, assembled in 1949 from bits and pieces of Roman artifacts found throughout Chester. None of the building fragments originally came from the present site. The project was initiated as Chester's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. The gardens were re-modeled in 2000 to provide a path down to the River Dee.

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.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Park Street - where a coin of Edward VI was mistaken for a Roman coin - just because it is written in latin doesn't mean it is Roman!

The River Dee

 * Continue through the Roman Gardens and head downhill towards the River Dee. At the river you have a choice: either head downstream to the Old Dee Bridge directly or head upstream towards the Suspension Bridge for a look at the Hermitage and the collection of relics just inside Grosvenor Park. None of these relics are Roman although it is thought that a further Roman baths may have existed hereabouts. There was a noted spring (known as "Jacobs Well" on the site of what is now a public toilet and the stonework from this spring is one of the relics in Grosvenor Park. If you choose to head towards the Suspension Bridge, then cross the river and head downstream on the southern bank to arrive at the Old Dee Bridge.

The River Dee was one reason the Romans located their fortress where they did, at the lowest fordable point in the river.



Near-by non-Roman

 * The Hermitage
 * Grosvenor Park
 * The Suspension Bridge

Old Dee Bridge


The present bridge over the River Dee replaced earlier medieval bridges, probably of timber, and is believed to stand just upstream of the site of a Roman bridge (see Roman Chester), which probably had stone piers carrying a timber carriageway. The remains of the bases of the Roman piers are said to be visible in the river bed just downstream of the present bridge. The precise date at which the Romans began construction at Chester has been the subject of much debate. According to one version, sometime around 74 CE, the then governor of Roman Britain, Sextus Julius Frontinus constructed an "auxiliary fort" at Deva Victrix (Chester). The placement of this fort (at the lowest ford of the Dee) appears to have been a strategic move by Frontinus with the intent of both blocking the route of any routed British trying to escape to the north, and to guard against help arriving from the Brigantes and other northern tribes. Frontinus was a noted engineer as well as being a governor, and author of De aquis urbis Romae, a history and description of the water supply of Rome. It is not known whether he was involved in providing Chester's water supply from the springs at Boughton to the Roman fort, but is is known that at this time lead (such as is used for plumbing) was traded with the Deceangli of north Wales.

The Roman bridge did not survive the early dark ages, and by the time of Æthelflæd had been replaced by a ferry, which traveled from Handbridge to the Shipgate.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Bridgegate - The present arched Bridgegate was built in 1782 (designed by Joseph Turner).
 * Bear and Billet - built in 1664 as the Bridge Street town house of the Earls of Shrewsbury who held the hereditary serjeancy of the nearby Bridgegate.

Minerva Shrine



 * Enter Edgars Field near the kid's playground. The shrine can be clearly seen ahead and slightly to the left, in the side of a rocky outcrop.

This 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 the emperor 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. 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. The Roman Road headed south from here to the cattle trading site at Bovium (Tilston). In medieval times the figure was thought to represent the Virgin Mary and this may have saved it from destruction by vandals or quarrying. However, almost 2000 years of Chester weather have left the stonework badly damaged and no doubt 'acid rain' has caused further damage in recent times.

The Minerva shrine is located in Edgar's Field about 200m from the south end of Handbridge Old Dee Bridge. Edgar was Edgar the Pacific - some say he was the first king of all England (and you can find his sandstone 'gate' just at the other side of the bridge). The Minerva shrine is well sign-posted, but to get there just cross the Norman bridge Old Dee Bridge and turn right past the Ship Inn then follow the path past the playground. The shrine is on the rocky outcrop to the left of the path.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Edgar's Field - Edgar the Pacific, (c. Aug 7, 943 – July 8, 975) was the great-grandson of Alfred and was famously crowned both at Bath and at Chester (in 973) as the first king of all England. King Edgar is said to have prayed in the minster (monasterium) of St. John after being rowed along the River Dee.


 * Grosvenor Bridge - built between 1827-1833 in order to ease congestion on the Old Dee Bridge. At its opening, the Grosvenor Bridge was the greatest single-span stone arch road bridge – at 200 feet across and 60 feet high – in the world. It remained so for 30 years.

Grosvenor Museum



 * The shortest route from the Minerva Shrine to the Grosvenor Museum is to cross the Old Dee Bridge and then head up St Mary's Hill. Turn left on reaching Castle Street and then right into Grosvenor Street, where the museum is located.

The Grosvenor Museum (official website) holds Chester's biggest collection of local and international history. It covers 2,000 years of Cestrian life spread over three floors of a classic 19th century building. It is truly one of the most interesting "local" museums in England and a "must see" when visiting Chester. And best of all – it's completely free! The Grosvenor Museum was founded in 1885, and its origins are linked to the start of the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art, founded by Charles Kingsley in 1871. Charles Kingsley was a Canon of Chester Cathedral from 1871 to 1873. He brought together many local naturalists, and the Society built up large and important natural history collections. The building of a local museum was first suggested in 1871, to house the collections and use them for teaching. Kingsley wrote many fictional works, but also wrote the lesser known "Town Geology" while in Chester.

The museum houses the largest collection of Roman tombstones from a single site in Britain. With a few exceptions, all the stones in the gallery had been reused at some time to repair the City Walls. The tombstones on display tell you something about the lives of the soldiers, slaves, women and children who lived in Roman Chester. The gallery takes you on a walk through a Roman cemetery. Four altars to Roman gods include one to Nemesis, the goddess of fate or destiny. Thirty five tombstones are on display. One of the finest pieces of Roman sculpture in the museum shows a fragment of a scene with a wounded barbarian lying defiantly under the legs of his opponent's horse. His spear is broken but he still clings onto his shield. The complete stone commemorated a Roman cavalryman whose name and likeness are now lost.

The first few were found in 1883. More were found in 1887, buried inside the lower part of the City Walls near the Phoenix Tower. Between 1883 and 1892, over 150 tombstones were found in the north wall. This is still the most spectacular archaeological find made in Chester. The walls were probably repaired later in the Roman period between 300 and 400 CE. Why the tombstones were used is a mystery. However, they were well preserved inside the wall and survived unharmed for 1500 years.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Chester Castle - one of the few castles in England or Wales that has been in constant use since first erected;
 * Military Museum - particularly concerned with the Cheshire Regiment;
 * The grave of Thomas Gould

Roman "Quay"



 * From the Grosvenor Museum, the Roman "Quay" is on the far side of the modern circular building next to the roundabout at the end of Grosvenor Street. Head towards the Roodee and then north along the City Walls. While a little of the quay can be seen from above and there is some signage about it, it is best viewed by going down steps onto the racecourse - which isn't possible on race days.

There as been much discussion about the so-called "Roman Quay", which extends for a considerable distance long the edge of the Roodee under the medieaval walls. Opposing theories have stated that Roman ships would tie-up along this "quay" for unloading, or that the "quay" is actually a defensive structure and the water depth over much of the Roodee would not have been sufficient, except perhaps at some high tides, for shipping to approach the "quay". Excavations for the construction of a gasworks (since demolished) revealed what could be interpreted as the far end of a pier, leading to the suggestion that this pier would be used for loading/unloading.

Chester "Roman Experience"

 * Head back to Bridge Street. The "Dewa Roman Experience" is well signposted. There is an entry fee (see website for details).

The award winning Dewa Roman Experience is a fun and informative attraction. Visitors of all ages can enjoy wandering through reconstructed Roman Streets, exploring the archaeological remains and handling ancient relics in the "hands-on" studio. Dewa Roman Experience (http://www.dewaromanexperience.co.uk/experience.html) occupies a unique site at the heart of the original legionary fortress. In 1991 archaeologists discovered remains of the fortress on this site and the excavations have been left open for public viewing.

The Baths (Cellar of "Spud-U-Like")



 * The remains of the Roman baths are in the basement of "Spud-U-Like" - on the opposite side of Bridge Street from the "Roman Experience". You don't need to pay anything or buy a "spud" to see the remains, although eating a baked potato while looking at the remains of a Roman bath-house isn't that bad.

Like most Roman settlements, Deva Victrix had a large legionary bath complex for the soldiers to wash and to use for leisure time. The remains on the east side of Bridge Street were largely destroyed during the construction of the Grosvenor Mall. It has been estimated that the baths used between 500,000 and 750,000 litres of water a day, which was supplied from the springs in Boughton. Water was piped in large lead pipes underground from a branch off the main aqueduct near the Eastgate, downhill to the baths on Bridge Street. The water was then held in large tanks with concrete foundations, and then fed through the complex. Waste water would have been fed downhill using gravity to the river. The water was fed through 24 hours a day.

Some of the baths remains can be viewed in situ at 39 Bridge Street. In the west cellar wall are sections of Roman bath house masonry, and the medieval rear walling contains a rebated doorway opening into an exposed Roman hypocaust, perhaps restored when found during development in 1864; these roman remains are thought to date from the second century AD. They consist of 27 square columns in a rectangular chamber which originally contained 32 columns in eight rows of four. Also in the east wall are compound corbels, comprising of four stones, positioned over the doorway and dating to circa 1300.

High Cross



 * Head uphill along Bridge Street towards St Peter. The Rows are a relic of Roman Chester in the sense that when the Roman buildings collapsed they left mounds of rubble on either side of the street and later buildings were errected on top of these.

Formally known as the High Cross, but colloquially as just the Cross, the Cross can be found outside the door of St Peter's at the intersection of the four main streets in the midst of The Rows: (Northgate Street, Bridge Street, Eastgate Street and Watergate Street) that formed the original roads within Roman Chester. St Peter's church stands by the High Cross on the site of part of the Roman Praetorium and some of its fabric dates from that time. A church is said to have been built on this site by Æthelflæd in 907 when the Roman city was refortified by the Mercians.

A Hidden Pillar


The praetentura, the houses of the six military tribunes, occupied the street frontage on the south side of Eastgate Street and Watergate Street. Unfortunately, reckless development during the 1960's destroyed any surviving structure. Dennis Petch, Curator of the Grosvenor Museum during the 1960s, is reported to have recalled bitterly (concerning later development of this location) that:


 * "..the developer refused to give permission for any formal excavation once his work on the site had begun... with customary efficiency Laing's immediately commenced the earthworks for underground storage and delivery bays for shops to be built in the precinct above... it was soon clear that the great colonnaded hall under the arcade formed part of the same complex and was in all probability one of the earliest of the covered palaestrae of the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire. Even after the great size and high degree of preservation of the building had been clearly demonstrated, and protests against its impending destruction were made at local and national level, commercial considerations prevailed, effectively limiting our gathering of site data to piecemeal observation and recording at the pleasure of the contractor, supplemented by very little formal excavation. This was not a very satisfactory way of proceeding in the case of such an important building which had apparently begun its life in the early years of the fortress and was still in use in the third century. This debacle attracted a great deal of public attention and criticism, and the upshot was a general conviction that such vandalism should not be allowed to recur."

One relic of these buildings survives to the rear of Watergate Street. To find it, enter the covered passageway near Bishop Lloyd's House and at the far end look over the wall.

Near-by non-Roman

 * 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.
 * Leche House - Leche House is located at 17 Watergate Street and Row, Chester, Cheshire, England. It is designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and incorporates a section of the Chester Rows. It is considered (by some) to be the best preserved medieval town house in Chester.

Roman Strongroom


The central room at the rear of the Headquarters was the "sacellum", the regimental shrine, which served as a focal point of the headquarters. The standards of the units were kept here. In the centre of the room was a sunken pit which acted as a "strongroom" (Aerarium) for the regimental pay chest. The money was kept here to deter thieves who would be committing "sacrilege" if they stole from the shrine. The legionary standard bearers acted as treasurers of the funds keeping track of what money was paid in and out. The Roman strongroom can still be seen. To find it, walk along Northgate street to the market square and head down the alleyway next to the "Dublin Packet". It is a sunken pit dug into the local stone.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Town Hall - Most of the time it is open to visitors (free of charge), but it is never that crowded. If you do visit, you can pick-up a free guide leaflet in the entrance. One amusing feature of the Town Hall is that some of the historical sculpture is a little less than accurate.


 * Chester Cathedral - According to legend, a "prehistoric Druid temple" existed on this site, which was succeeded by a Roman temple dedicated to Apollo, and then, when Christianity became the state religion of Rome in the fourth century AD, the pagan temple may have become a Christian basilica on the site of the present cathedral.

Assorted Stones


A cluster of stonework towards the upper end of the Market Square. The tall column is 18thC. The one across the diagonal from the tall column is from the Roman Principia. The other two on the diagonals are from the Roman baths in Bridge Street and the gutter is from Princess Street.

Site of Corner Tower


The section of wall between Bonewaldesthorne’s Tower and Pemberton’s Parlour dates to the late eleventh or early twelfth centuries. The defences of the former Roman settlement were extended westward by the Saxons and later improved. The walls were altered to form a raised promenade between 1701 and 1708, a walk that is about 2m wide. It is constructed from red coursed rubble sandstone. Approximately 1m north of the outer face of the wall can be seen a retaining wall of large red sandstone blocks which probably replaced the original earth bank. The south face of the wall has a 15m length with 5 courses of large stones set back a little from the face of adjoining lengths west and east, with a continuous course of rounded corbels immediately below the wall walk and thought to have been the base for the former inner timber palisade.

At this point the original walls of Roman Chester would have turned south and a further "corner tower" would have been located here. In the 1960s the Inner Ring Road, breaching the walls, was built. St Martin's Gate consists of a concrete arch, opened in 1966, to carry the wall walk over the road. The location of the corner tower has been marked out in cobbles at the base of the concrete steps leading down from the bridge - and that is all there is to see.

Near-by non-Roman

 * Gloverstone
 * Watertower

Roman parts of the City Walls


The walls of Roman Chester were built to a very high standard of large sandstone blocks without mortar, a technique known as opus caementicium and usually reserved for temple or city walls rather than those of a fortress. So one mystery is why did Chester get this special treatment, and why is Chester significantly (20%) larger than the any other Roman legionary fortress in Britain? One theory is that Chester was intended to be thew capital of the province of Britain. The presence of unusual buildings at the heart of the fortress – accounting for the area by which Deva was larger than other fortresses – has been taken as evidence that their construction was specifically ordered by the provincial governor. The governor when construction first started was Gnaeus Julius Agricola. Lead piping (now in the Grosvenor Museum) found in the unique elliptical building bears his name. This is the only evidence in Britain of a building under the provincial governors direct control. These differences suggest that Deva may have been Agricola’s administrative headquarters – in effect the capital of Britannia. The section of wall heading north from Eastgate almost follows the line of the Roman walls, but not quite. In places the east-facing Roman walls would have been a few meters further to the east. The Roman walls of Chester were once thought to have been rebuilt in stone from the middle of the second century CE. There has been much debate on this. However, it now appears that the facing of the ramparts with stone started earlier and the rebuilding of the ramparts with solid stone was well underway by the end of the first century, i.e. within a few years of the establishment of the city. This would have been a massive undertaking, as the stone walls, towers and gates comprise some 55 thousand tons of stone (about 70 thousand Roman wagon-loads). Even after the Romans had built their stone walls there were still changes: from around 260-310 work at Chester was largely abandoned while the Twentieth Legion was fighting elsewhere. During this half-century, the ditch silted up and parts of the wall collapsed due to lack of maintenance.

Eastgate


Thomas Pennant, as quoted by Frank Simpson writes of it as follows (emphasis added):


 * " Of the four gates of the city,' says he," one of the East-gate, continued till of late years; it was of Roman architecture, and consisted of two arches, much hid by a tower, erected over it in later days . A few years ago it was pulled down, on account of its straitness and inconvenience, to give way to a magnificent gate, which rose in its place by the munificence of lord Grosvenor'. I remember the demolition of the ancient structure and on the taking down the more modem case of Norman masonry, the Roman appeared full in view. It consisted of two arches, formed of vast stones, fronting the Eastgate-street and the Forest-street; the pillars be them dividing the street exactly in two. The accurate representation of them by Mr. Wilkinson, of this city will give a stronger idea than words can convey; as also of the figure of the Roman soldier, placed between the tops of the arches, facing the Fores-street . This species of double gate was not unfrequent. The Portae, esquilina, and the Porte portesi, at Rome were of this kind. Flores, in his medals of the Roman colonies in Spain exhibits one of the coins of Merida, the ancient Emerita, particularly on those of Augustus, which shews that the colonists were proud of their gate; and perhaps not without reason, as it appears to have been the work of the best age. I must conclude, that the mode seems to have been derived from the Grecian architecture ; for at Athens stood a Dipylon or double gate now demolished - The East-gate faced the great Watling-street road, and the place where other military ways united. Through this was the greatest conflux of people which rendered the use of the double portal more requisite "

Indeed, there is part of an arch at the northern end of the gateway. It is tucked away by the stairs leading up to the walkway along the walls and forms part of the front of a very small shop selling refreshments.