Updates

The following articles have been written or updated in the past year:


 * Joan, Lady of Wales: but who was her mother?
 * Cheshire Dialect: on the trail of Gawain: updated to include references to Frodsham;
 * A Chester Heraldry Tour: a brief guide to some heraldry in Chester;
 * Some Stained Glass in Chester;
 * Flintshire was closely linked to the Palatinate of Chester;
 * Before The Romans and Medieval Chester;
 * The Acid Tar Lagoon of Hoole is not a tourist attraction;
 * The Chester Pageant of 1910 and the Chester Pageant 1937;
 * Execution at Chester: a look at characters and locations;
 * The Chester Imp and a trail of chaos;
 * Blue Plaques and other signage;
 * An updated look at the Cathedral and the history of the abbey which preceeded it;
 * Northgate Station: Chester's "other" railway station:
 * Victorian Chester: the city in "Black and White";
 * Alex Smith: Victorian builder responsible for several noted buildings in Chester;
 * Pat Collins: a circus showman born in Chester;
 * Georgian Chester: a wild party that the Victorians thought was a dissolute era;
 * Stuart Chester: a troubled time for Chester which saw significant changes in architecture;
 * Tudor Chester: the end of the Middle Ages;
 * Regatta: Chester Regatta is the world's oldest rowing Regatta - depending on definitions;
 * Pandemic: the effect on Chester of plagues through the ages;
 * Gorse Stacks: a look at the history;
 * Three Hares: a curious symbol from the Cathedral;
 * Trams; Chester's one-time tram system. Horses, then electricity;
 * Harold's family: legends and history;
 * Werburgh: Chester's patron saint and her re-invention;
 * Chester in 900: a historical puzzle;
 * John Romney: an engraver of some note who lived in Chester;
 * Tunnels: are there secret tunnels under Chester?
 * Bridges: a look at the history of bridges in Chester;
 * Dee Mills: a history of the mills;
 * Military History of Chester: a summary and category of pages;
 * Comet: how a photograph is often misreported;
 * Æthelflæd: and her impact on Chester;
 * Ecgbert: his image carved at the Town Hall, but what did he do for Chester?
 * Viking: Vikings and Chester;
 * Architectural Glossary: why "half-timber" is called that;
 * Titanic: and its links with Chester;
 * Grosvenor Club: cultural significance of the bank and sybolism;
 * Historiography: "errors" in the history of Chester;
 * Royal Treasure: was Richard II's gold hidden at Beeston Castle?;
 * Grosvenor Treasure: was Arthur Conan Doyle scammed by a Sherlockian puzzle involving HMS Grosvenor?
 * Olaf II: how one of Chester's churches came to be dedicated to a brutal psychopath:
 * Ælfgar: a forgotten "civil war";
 * John Fletcher: but which one? - there were two and they have been confused;
 * Battle of Brunanburh: fought near Chester?
 * Farndon and the mysterious death of Edward the Elder;
 * Gildas, Bede, Nennius and Gerald of Wales: four early writers;
 * The Mold Cope: a fascinating story with links to several separate legends, and what basis they have in fact;
 * Chester Zoo: a look at the early history of the Zoo;
 * Charles Kingsley and Victorian paternalism;
 * Time: more on electric clock pioneer Robert Lewis Jones of Hoole:
 * The River Gowy: From a stone elephant via a lot of mills to a ruined abbey;
 * Vale Royal: Poisoned daggers, fake history, drugs, sex and murder;
 * Booksellers and others in the print trade in Chester;
 * Chester Clockmakers and Chester public clocks: - these clocks often tell more than just the time;
 * The Battle of Chester: c616 - who fought in it and why?
 * Thomas Baldwin: of Hoole Hall, early balloonist and inventor;
 * Road Transport: how routes developed and evolved over the years, from prehistoric to modern;
 * Cheshire Castles were built by the Normans to defend a natural border defined by the flooding of the Dee and Pulford Brook;
 * Celia Fiennes was a Chester tourist in 1698 and viewed the city from the coupola atop the then recently completed Exchange building;
 * Explore Elizabethan Chester using a point and click map;
 * Cholmondeley's house in Grosvenor Park was the subject of an early case of "fake news";
 * Portpool: Chester's "Old Port" area;
 * Bruen: Puritans in Chester and a small step on the road to Civil War;
 * Chamber's Book of days features many Chester folk-customs - here is a commentary and analysis;
 * Queen Dido: a triumph on the Roodee, Elizabeth I and the enemy of Rome;
 * Elen of the Hosts: how a garbled reference to a Roman church in the Mystery Plays opens a window on the politics of prophecy;
 * Plegmund: shedding some light on his involvement with religious and political turmoil at the time of Alfred the Great;
 * Shakespeare and Chester: William Stanley (who did not live at Stanley Palace) and the authorship question;
 * The Chester Mystery Plays: why the guilds picked the subject matter they did and the long shadow of theatre censorship from 1575 until the 1960's;
 * Geology of Chester: a look at how geology has helped shape the built environment in Chester;
 * Legio II: two different legions with the same number were involved in Roman Britain;
 * An entirely unofficial version of the St Johns Trail - not yet available as a GPS version for phones, but that is an experiment in progress;
 * Legio XX: the 20th Legion. A look at its history and the various theories as to how it came to be named "Valeria Victrix";
 * Chester's Amphitheatre was, possibly, the site of a shrine to early christian martyrs;
 * A more detailed look at Hilbre Island in the mouth of the River Dee where the inventive proposals of a forgotten James Boaz became an early step in a technology which changed the world;
 * A new category of Drone footage of Chester and places along the River Dee - look for the drone icon;
 * Tanning was an important industrial process in Chester: here is a brief look at its history;
 * Upton Hall of which nothing remains visible on the site, and some fictional tales about Cromwell in Chester;
 * Sir Thomas Browne lived on the cusp between an age of superstition and one of reason. He had his roots in Upton, and wrote one of his most famous works at an inn in Foregate Street.
 * The 1883 Reform Act arose in part out of a Chester saga involving electoral corruption and a lot of beer;
 * The Courts: In the late Middle Ages office the office of Justice of Chester was a powerful position, but it was also a decidedly deadly one:- possibly one of the most dangerous jobs of the time - few survived the office without being exiled, killed or simply dying in office. Peaceful retirement was seldom an option.
 * Roger Whitley who carried post from Charles II to George Booth and served as Whig MP for Chester, profited greatly after the Restoration when he was made Deputy Postmaster General. He later became Mayor of Chester;
 * The Booth Rising was a failed attempt to overthrow the new Lord Protector (Richard Cromwell). It involved the "capture" of Chester and a siege of Chester Castle. Booth's army was defeated and he was the subject of much ridicule for being arrested while disguised as a woman.
 * Perhaps the final end of Charles Moston and the Chester Canal mystery... or is there more to be discovered? Also the real truth about the "Black Dog Of Waverton";