In 1779 Boswell wrote to
Samuel Johnson: "Chester pleases me more than any town I
ever saw." CHESTER , forty miles southwest of Manchester, has changed since then, but not
so much. A glorious two-mile ring of medieval and Roman walls
encircle a neat kernel of Tudor and Victorian buildings, including
the unique raised arcades called the "Rows". Very much
the commercial hub of its county, Chester has enough in the way
of sights, restaurants and atmosphere to make it an enjoyable
base for a couple of days.
In 79 AD the Romans built
Deva Castra here, their largest known fortress in Britain. Later,
Ethelfleda, the daughter of King Alfred the Great, extended and
refortified the place, only to have it brutally sacked by William
the Conqueror's armies. Trade routes to Ireland made Chester the most prosperous
port in the northwest, a status it recovered after the English
Civil War, which saw a two-year-long siege of the town at the
hands of the Parliamentarians. By the middle of the eighteenth
century, however, silting of the port had forced the Irish trade
to be rerouted first through Parkgate on the Dee estuary, and
then to Liverpool. Things improved a little with
the Industrial Revolution, as the canal and railway networks
made Chester an important regional trading centre, a function
it still retains.
Walking tours - assorted
Roman, historic and ghost trails - from the Town Hall tourist
office and from the Vicar Lane Visitor Centre (May-Oct twice
daily; Nov-April once daily) aren't a bad way to orient yourself.
The main thoroughfares of Chester's Roman grid plan meet at the
Cross , where the town crier welcomes visitors to the city (May-Aug
Tues-Sat at noon). Both sides of all four streets are lined by
the Rows , unique galleried arcades running on top of the ground-floor
shops. The engaging black-and-white tableau is a blend of genuine
Tudor houses and Victorian half-timbered imitations, with the
finest Tudor buildings on Watergate Street - though Eastgate
Street is perhaps the most picturesque, leading to the filigree
Eastgate Clock , erected atop a sandstone arch to commemorate
Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
You can get an insight
into Chester's Roman heritage at Deva Roman Experience tucked
away up Pierpoint Lane, off Bridge Street (daily 9am-5pm). North
of the Cross, the neo-Gothic town hall dominates its square at
the end of Northgate Street across from the heavily restored
Cathedral (daily 7.30am-6pm; free tours Mon-Sat 2.30pm). Taking
the role of cathedral in 1541 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries,
this Benedictine church is dedicated to St Werburgh, a seventh-century
Anglo-Saxon princess who became Chester's patron saint. Parts
of the eleventh-century structure can still be seen in the north
transept but the highlights are the fourteenth-century choir
stalls, with their intricately carved misericords.
East of the cathedral,
steps provide access to the top of the two-mile girdle of the
medieval and Roman city walls - the most complete set in Britain.
You can walk past all its towers, turrets and gateways in an
hour or two, including the Water Tower at the northwest corner,
which once stood in the river - evidence of the changes brought
about by the gradual silting of the River Dee. South from the
Water Tower you'll see the Roodee , England's oldest racecourse,
laid out on a silted tidal pool where Roman ships once unloaded
wine, figs and olive oil from the Mediterranean.
Until nineteenth-century
excavation work, much of the wall near the Water Tower was propped
up by scores of sculpted tomb panels and engraved headstones,
items probably used to rebuild the walls in a hurry in the turbulent
fourth century. Many are now on display at the Grosvenor Museum
, 27 Grosvenor St (Mon-Sat 10.30am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; free), just
inside the city walls near the southern end of the Roodee. This
is the best investigation of Roman Chester, with good displays
about the legionary system, city buildings, grave sites, defences,
daily life and culture. The back of the museum opens into a preserved
Georgian house complete with furnished kitchen, parlour, bedrooms,
rickety floors and sloping stairs. Across the traffic roundabout
on Castle Street, the Cheshire Military Museum (daily 10am-5pm)
inhabits part of the same complex as the Norman Chester Castle
(Easter-Sept daily 10am-6pm; Oct-Easter daily 10am-4pm; free;
EH). Though the castle was founded by William the Conqueror,
most of what you see today is little older than the eighteenth-century
Greek Revival Assize Courts and council offices on the same site,
the building of which led to the demolition of much of the medieval
structure.
South of the castle, the
wall is buried under the street, but it rises again alongside
the Roman Gardens (unrestricted access) on Souters Lane at Little
John Street, where Roman foundations and columns dug up during
redevelopment are on display. Across the road stands the half-excavated
remains of the Roman Amphitheatre (Easter-Sept daily 10am-6pm;
Oct-Easter daily 10am-1pm & 2-4pm; free; EH); it is estimated
to have held seven thousand spectators, making it the largest
amphitheatre in Britain, but the stonework is barely head-high
now.
The partly ruined pink-stone
Church of St John the Baptist (daily 9.15am-6pm), a little to
the east in Grosvenor Park, was founded by the Saxon king Ethelred
in 689 and briefly served as the cathedral of Mercia. Its romantic
eastern ruins were left to deteriorate having been cut off from
the rest of the church after the Reformation. Steps from the
church gardens and from the southern edge of the city walls lead
to the tree-shaded Groves , on the banks of the Dee, with its
bandstand, slender iron footbridge and villas overlooking the
willows draped along the opposite bank. Bithells Boats (tel 01244/325394,
) runs half-hour cruises on the river (every 15min; April-Oct
10am-5pm; Nov-March Sat & Sun 11am-4pm) and two-hour trips
in the summer (Wed & Sat 11am & 8pm, rest of week 11am
only).
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