St Johns Trail



The area around St Johns in Chester is incredibly rich in historical and cultural interest. Wandering about, one comes across references to the "St John's Trail" on which more information can be found hera. The "St John's Trail" here on Chesterwiki has no association with St John's and sets out a somewhat longer circular "trail" (it takes about two hours) visiting some of the historical and cultural sites around St John's. It is also mostly in traffic free and often greener spaces. Much more detailed information on many of the locations can be found elsewhere on Chesterwiki and links are given both in the text and below in the "Related Pages" section.

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

The Newgate Again
On the 30th September, 1939 the "Munich Agreement" was signed by Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Daladier and Chamberlain, this forced Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany, and Chamberlain returned to make his famous "Peace in Our Time" speech. The following commentary appeared in "The Times" on the 4th October 1938:


 * The rebuilt Newgate at Chester was opened by the Mayor, Alderman George Barlow, yesterday. Presenting the Mayor with a pair of gold scissors with which to cut the tape, Alderman Matthew Jones suggested that they might rename it the Munich Gateway having regard to the circumstances of its inauguration. A prayer was offered by the Dean of Chester, and afterwards there was a luncheon at the Town Hall. The gate has been erected to meet traffic demands and displaces the oldest of the city's gates. The date of erection of the original gate is not known, but a gate stood on the present site in or before 1327 and was known as Wolf's Gate, and later as Pepper Gate.

There are many theories that Adolf lived in Liverpool for a while, but so far no-one has ever suggested that he visited Chester. However there is an interesting twist here: the Sendlinger Tor ("Sending Gate") in Munich does bear a passing resemblance to the New Gate in Chester.



Related Pages

 * City Walls;
 * St Johns;
 * St John Street;
 * Amphitheatre;
 * Pepper Street;
 * Souters Lane;
 * Dark Ages;
 * Roman Chester;
 * Jacobs Well;
 * River Dee;
 * Hermitage;
 * Suspension Bridge;
 * Grosvenor Park;
 * Vicars Lane;
 * Civil War;