Chester
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[edit] Introduction
Chester is the county town of Cheshire, England. It is situated on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, and is one of the best-preserved walled cities in the country. It is the main settlement in the City of Chester local government district.
According to the 2001 census, the population of the Chester urban area was 90,925, 80,121 of whom were identified as living in Chester, and the rest in Broughton or Saltney. This makes the city the largest settlement in terms of population in Cheshire. The wider City of Chester district has a population of around 120,000. The adjective associated with the city is Cestrian. The patron saint of Chester is Saint Werburgh. The city's motto is 'Antiqui Colant Antiquum Dierum', which translates as 'Let the Ancients worship the Ancient of Days'.
Parry's Railway Companion of 1848 describes Chester thus:
- There are few cities in Europe, or perhaps in the Universe, which have a stronger claim to attention than Chester. The eye of a stranger will have an ample field for admiration. The man of taste who may pay it a visit, will not depart ungratified; nor will the antiquarian search in vain, for some rich and profitable treasure of investigation within its walls: in short, such is the antiquity of Chester, that the stranger who can pass through without bestowing some little share of attention, must have an incurious eye indeed. It is situated on the northern bank of the River Dee — a river which has been the theme of poesy and the admiration of the ancients.
[edit] History (see also The Chester Timeline)
[edit] Roman Origins (see Roman remains for more detail)
Chester is an ancient city dating back nearly two millennia to 79CE. The Romans built successive forts there in wood and stone and called the place Deva Victrix or Deva. It was the home of the Second Legion and then the Twentieth Legion. Civilian settlements also developed outside the fortress walls.
[edit] Post Roman and Saxon Period (see Dark Age Chester for more detail)
The Roman Empire fell 300 years later, and the Romano-British established a number of petty kingdoms in its place. Chester is thought to have been part of Powys at this time. King Arthur is said to have fought his ninth battle at the city of the legions and later St Augustine came to the city to try and unite the church and hold his synod with the Welsh Bishops. In 616, Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated a Welsh army at the Battle of Chester and probably established the Anglo-Saxon position in the area from then on.
In the late 7th century, Saint Werburgh founded a religious institution on the present site of St John's Church which later became the first cathedral. Her body was removed from Hanbury in Staffordshire in the 9th century and, in order to save its desecration by Danish marauders, she was reburied in the Abbey of SS Peter & Paul in Chester (the present cathedral). Her name is still remembered in St Werburgh's Street which passes alongside the cathedral, and near to the city walls.
The Saxons extended and strengthened the walls of Chester to protect the city against the Danes, who occupied it for a short time until Alfred seized all the cattle and laid waste the surrounding land to drive them out. In fact it was Alfred's daughter Ethelfleda Lady of the Mercians who built the new Saxon 'burh'. The Anglo-Saxons called Chester Ceaster or Legeceaster.
In 973, two years after his coronation at Bath, King Edgar came to Chester, where he held his court in a palace in a place now known as Edgar’s Field near the Old Dee Bridge in Handbridge. Taking the helm of a barge, he was rowed the short distance up the River Dee from Edgar’s Field to St John's Church by six tributary kings called ‘reguli’ (the monk Henry Bradshaw records he was rowed by eight kings).
The kings' names are given as Kynath, King of Scots; James, King of Galloway; Maccon, King of Man, Malcolm and Inkil, Kings of Cumberland; Sifreth and Hywal, Kings of North Wales; and Dufnal, King of South Wales.
The kings then swore fealty and allegiance to him at a service at the church, and then rowed him back to the palace. The event was recorded by Ranulph Higden, a monk of St. Werburgh's Abbey in Chester and it is also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
"In this year Prince Edgar was consecrated king on Whit Sunday at Bath, in the thirteenth year after his accession when he was twenty nine years old. Soon after this, the king led all his fleet to Chester, and there six kings came to him, to make their submission, and pledged themselves to be his fellow workers, by sea and land."
[edit] Middle Ages (see Chester Castle and The Earls of Chester for more detail)
After the 1066 Norman Conquest and the harrying of the north, the Normans took Chester, destroying 200 houses in the city. Hugo d'Avranches, the first Norman earl (it was first given to a Fleming, Gherbod, who never took up residence but returned to Flanders where he was captured, and later killed) was William's nephew. He built a motte and bailey near the river, as another defence from the Celts. It is now known as Chester Castle and was rebuilt in stone by Henry II in 1245, after the last of six Norman earls died without issue.
Chester's earls were a law unto themselves (see The Earls of Chester for much more detail). They kept huge hunting forests - Hugo was said to have 'preferred falconers and huntsmen to the cultivators of the soil', and Ranulph I converted the Wirral farmlands into another hunting forest. Before Ranulph, Hugo's son had inherited at the age of seven but died in the White Ship, along with the king's heir, William, on his way to England from France, where he was educated under the guardianship of Henry I. Earl Ranulph II, Ranulph's son, even helped to capture King Stephen in 1140, and ended up controlling a third of England after supporting Henry II's claim to the throne.
Other earls were Hugh II, Ranulph III and John the Scot. The traditional independence that Chester had under the earls was confirmed by a charter of Richard II in 1398 stating that 'the said county of Chester shall be the principality of Chester'. The earls are remembered with their shields on the Queen's Park Suspension Bridge over the river Dee, and again on the Grosvenor Park lodge.
The first earl had endowed a great Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Werburgh in 1092 (on the site of a church of c 660 dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, which was moved to the city centre by the Cross where it still stands). The monastery was dissolved under Henry VIII in 1540 and was rededicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary to become Chester Cathedral. Previously, the first Chester Minster or Cathedral had become plain St John's Church after the see was transferred to Coventry in the early 12th century.
There is a popular belief that it was the silting of the River Dee that created the land which is now Chester's racecourse (known as the Roodee), on which a stone cross still stands which is said to have been erected in memory of Lady Trawst, who died as a result of an image of the Virgin Mary called Holy Rood falling upon her in Hawarden church a few miles down the river).
Despite stories to the contrary, the weir above the Old Dee Bridge was not built by the Romans but by Hugh Lupus, (Earl of Chester) between 1077 and 1101 to hold water for his river mills. The purpose of the weir on the river was to keep water levels high for these mills, one of which gave rise to the traditional song "Miller of Dee". It also prevents the salty tidal waters from entering the Dee fresh water basin.
Chester's port flourished under Norman rule. In 1195 a monk, Lucian, wrote 'ships from Aquitaine, Spain, Ireland and Germany unload their cargoes of wine and other merchandise'. In fact, wine was only imported through four other English ports. During the 13th century, Chester was famous for its fur trade and even by the mid-16th century the port was importing large amounts of fur and skins. In 1543 one ship alone brought in '1600 shhep fells, 68 dere, 69 fawne skins and 6300 broke (badger skins)' .
However, the estuary was silting up so that trading ships to the port of Chester had to harbour at Neston, Heswall, Croyton and regularly at Redcliffe 16 miles downstream.
[edit] Tudor and Stuart times (see Civil War for more detail)
Originally the port was located to the north of the Watergate just below the city wall. To the south of the Watergate the Roodee existed in smaller form than today. The map sequence shows the river moving its course from against the wall north of the Watergate out to its current location between 1580 and approximately the 1830s. By the first edition OS map, the river had reached its current position. However, it is apparent that some rivulets and inlets have been lost since, although some have been identified in archaeological work on the site of the former House of Industry and gasworks.
In September 1642, tension between King Charles I and Parliament was growing and civil war looked a possibility. Charles visited Chester and ensured a pro-royalist mayor was elected; William Ince. In March 1643, leading Chester royalist Sir Francis Gamull was commissioned to raise a regiment of foot soldiers to defend the city. And an experienced soldier by the name of Colonel Robert Ellis was asked to construct outer defences to the city. A series of earthworks were constructed around the city from Boughton through Hoole and Newton to the Water Tower. The earthworks consisted of a ditch and mud wall with a series of 'mounts' or gun platforms were added along with turnpike gates on incoming roads. This footpath is formed from a trench cut into the sandstone bedrock to provide protection to the city during the English Civil War.
Parliamentary forces began to lay siege to the city of Chester. In the early morning of 20 September 1645, parliamentary forces overran the eastern earthworks at the Boughton turnpike and captured the east suburbs of the city up to the walls. They began to construct cannon batteries in range of the city.
A cannon battery placed in St John's churchyard breached the city walls on 22 September near the Roman Gardens. A hole some 25 feet wide was made with 32 cannon shots. An attempt had been made to storm the city, but this was repelled. According to an account at the time by Lord Byron, the breach was stopped up with woolpacks and feather beds from all parts of the town.
On the evening of 23 September 1645, King Charles I entered the City of Chester with 600 men via the Old Dee Bridge. He stayed the night at Sir Francis Gamull's house on Bridge Street. Also during the evening, Sydenham Poyntz, a Parliamentarian in pursuit of the King's forces, entered Whitchurch, 15 miles to the south, with 3,000 horses. A battle looked likely.
Later on in the evening, the King became aware of Poyntz's movements as a messenger was intercepted at Holt. A decision was made to send out Lord Gerrard's horse troops and 500 foot soldiers in the morning.
On the morning of 24 September 1645, the Battle of Rowton Moor occurred on moorland called Miller's Heath near the village of Rowton, two miles to the south-east of the city on the modern A41 road. Parliamentary forces crushed the Royalist loyal Cavaliers. The city was under siege at the time by the Parliamentary army. Royalist forces were coming to lift the siege and join up with Scottish Allies. They were intercepted by Parliamentary forces outside Chester.
The engagement lasted all day, starting at 9am and continuing throughout the day in three stages as Royalists were pushed back towards the city and its walls. The battle was mainly conducted on horseback with musketeers in support on the flanks. As the battle went on into the afternoon, more troops were ordered to march out of the Northgate in support of the Royalists on Rowton Moor, but this decision was too late, the battle was already lost.
As the fighting reached the suburbs, it was watched by King Charles I and Sir Francis Gamull from Chester's Phoenix Tower (now also called King Charles' Tower) on the city walls. The king quickly withdrew to the cathedral tower, but even this was not safe, as the captain standing next to him was shot in the head by musket fire from the victorious Parliamentarians who took residence in the St John's Church tower.
The battle cost the lives of 600 Royalists and an unknown number of Parliamentarians. Among the Royalist dead was Lord Bernard Stuart (1622-1645) Earl of Lichfield, the king's cousin. His portrait is displayed in the National Gallery.[1]
Also slain at the same time was William Lawes (1602–1645), a noted English composer and musician. He was buried in Chester Cathedral without a memorial. He was remembered by the king as the 'Father of Musick' and his portrait as a cavalier hangs in the Faculty of Music at Oxford.
Today, there is a small memorial to the battle in the village of Rowton. It consists of a brief history and a battle plan of the field at the time.[1]
The next day, the king slipped out of Chester and crossed the Old Dee Bridge en route to Denbigh. He left instructions for the city to hold out for ten days more.
By 1646, after having refused to surrender nine times and with Lord Byron at the head of the city's defences, having only spring water and boiled wheat for lunch — the citizens (17,000) had already eaten their dogs — a treaty was signed. The mills and the waterworks lay in ruins and not one house from the Eastgate to the middle of Watergate Street[citation needed] had escaped bombardment. The exultant Puritan forces let loose on the city, despite the treaty, and destroyed religious icons including the High Cross, which was not erected again for over three centuries. In 1646, King Charles I was proclaimed a traitor beside its base.
Worse was to come; the starving citizens then bore the full brunt of the plague, with 2,099 people dead between summer 1647 and the following spring.
In 1643, Sir Richard Grosvenor petitioned the Assembly to enclose the Row which ran through the front of his town house on Lower Bridge Street. His request was granted; at the time he was employed in the Royalist army as a Commander. Perhaps the room was being used to organise the Royalist Resistance in Chester. In the years after the war, people further down the street also asked for the Row to be enclosed. Eventually Lower Bridge Street lost its Rows. The only trace can now be found at number 11.
Most of Chester was rebuilt after the Civil War. There are many fine half-timbered houses dating from this time still standing today.
Chester port declined with most of the ships going from the colonies now going to Liverpool, although it was still the major port of passenger embarkation for Ireland until the early 1800s. A new port was established on the Wirral called Parkgate, but this also fell out of use. The road to the port of Chester was called the 'Great Irish Road' and ran from Bristol to Chester.
[edit] Georgian and Victorian Eras
The port declined seriously from 1762 onwards. By 1840 it could no longer effectively compete with Liverpool as a port, although significant shipbuilding and ropemaking continued at Chester. It was once thought that Chester's maritime trade was brought to an end by the silting of the River Dee, although recent research has shown this was not the case. It was the use of larger ocean-going ships that led to the diversion of the trade to the relatively young town of Liverpool and other locations on the River Mersey, which had long been rivals to Chester, such as Runcorn.
In the Georgian era, Chester became again a centre of affluence, a town with elegant terraces where the landed aristocracy lived. This trend continued into the Industrial Revolution, when the city was populated with the upper classes fleeing to a safe distance from the industrial sprawls of Manchester and Liverpool.
The Industrial Revolution brought the Chester Canal (now part of the Shropshire Union Canal) to the city (which was dubbed "England's first unsuccessful canal", after its failure to bring heavy industry to Chester) as well as railways and two large central stations, only one of which remains. A lead works was established by the canal in 1799; its Shot Tower, which was used for making lead shot for the Napoleonic Wars, is the oldest remaining shot tower in the UK.
The Victorians built Chester's Gothic Town Hall, which, along with the cathedral, dominates the city skyline. This was built after the original Guild Hall burnt down, and features a clock tower with only three faces, with the Welsh-facing side remaining blank. The reason for this was declared by the architects to be simply because "Chester won't give the Welsh the time of day". However, this did not stop the town hosting Wales's National Eisteddfod in 1866.
The Eastgate Clock was also built at this time, and is a central feature as it crosses Eastgate Street, and is part of the city walls.The clock is very popular with tourists, and this has given it the grand title of the second most photographed clock in the UK (perhaps even the world) after Big Ben.
In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Chester like this:
- "Chester.-- parl. and mun. bor., city, and co. in itself, locally in W. Cheshire, about 20 miles by the river from the Irish Sea, 16 miles S. of Liverpool. and 33 SW. of Manchester by rail -- parl. bor. (extending into Flintshire), 3289 ac., pop. 40,972; mun. bor., 2857 ac., pop. 36,794; 4 Banks, 6 newspapers. Market-day, Saturday; stands on a rocky height on right bank of river Dee, which is here crossed by a splendid stone bridge with a single span of 200 ft., the largest save one, it is believed, in Europe. C. is a great railway centre, and has one of the finest stations in the kingdom. It is connected with the Mersey by the Ellesmere Canal. As a port it has been injuriously affected by the silting up of the Dee, and its shipping trade is now inconsiderable. (For shipping statistics, see Appendix.) C. is a very ancient city; it was the Devana Castra of the Romans, and the Caerleon Vawr, or "City of the Great Legion," of the Cymri. It is the only city in England that still possesses its walls entire. C. was made the see of a bishop in 1541. The cathedral, a massive Gothic structure, is of great antiquity, as are also many of the churches. The city possesses several fine examples of the old timber houses of the 17th century. The castle was taken down towards the end of last century, and replaced by a barracks, a county jail, and assize courts. C. has mfrs. of boots and shoes for exportation and the wholesale home trade; furniture and upholstery; paint, shot, and lead pipes; it has also iron foundries and a shipbuilding yard. The principal exports are cheese, lead, copper-plates, cast-iron, and coal. The bor. returns 1 member to Parliament."
[edit] Present Day
A considerable amount of land in Chester is owned by Duke of Westminster who owns an estate at Eaton near the village of Eccleston. Grosvenor is the Duke's family name, which explains such features in the City such as the Grosvenor Hotel and Grosvenor Park. Much of Chester's architecture dates from the Victorian era, with many of the buildings that aren't modelled on the Jacobean half-timbered style of the medieval times being designed by John Douglas, employed by the Duke as his principal architect. He had a trademark of twisted chimney stacks, many of which can be seen on the buildings in the city centre. Douglas designed amongst other buildings the Grosvenor Hotel and the City Baths. His protege James Strong, a city architect, in 1911 designed the former fire station on the west side of Northgate Street. Another feature of all buildings belonging to the estate of Westminster is the 'Grey Diamonds'; a weaving pattern of grey bricks in the red brickwork, laid out in a diamond formation. By 1945, two problems needed attention, namely affordable housing and traffic congestion. As a result, vast areas of slums were cleared and in 1964 an inner bypass was driven through and around the city centre. Large areas of open fields on the outskirts of the City were turned into residential areas in the 1950s and early 1960s producing, for instance, Blacon.
In the late 1960s, the city authorities realised that new developments were radically altering the look of the city centre. In 1968, Donald Insall published a report in collaboration with the city authorities and central government. His report recommended preserving historic buildings and finding new uses for them, rather than tearing them down.
In 1969, the City Conservation Area was designated. Over the next 20 years, emphasis was placed on saving historic buildings, such as The Falcon Inn, Dutch Houses and Kings Buildings.
On 13 January 2002, Chester was granted Fairtrade City status. This status was renewed by the Fairtrade Foundation on 20 August 2003.
In August 2005, the council announced plans to demolish the police station, an unsightly edifice built in the 1960s. However, the replacement building, a cylindrical glass hotel/cafe, has sparked controversy, partly due to the large number of other glass structures planned within the city, especially the new council offices.
The Northgate development will demolish the old Council offices, which will move into a new building on an old car park at Gorse Stacks. This structure was unpopular with many of the older citizens of Chester, leading to a poem by local writer, Gordon Emery, in the Chester Standard dubbing it the 'Glass Slug'. The name has stuck.
Cestrians are often perceived (part jokingly) of being "anti-Welsh" although many have Welsh ancestors. This is exemplified by the fact that the Town Hall clock does not face west, towards Wales, and an archaic law which states any Cestrian may shoot a Welshman with a longbow if he loiters within the walls after sunset when the curfew bell chimes (although this law no longer offers legal protection against prosecution for murder). However, many Cestrians work and shop in Wales, and Chester shares a radio station with Wrexham, 15 miles away in Wales.
Chester is twinned with the French town of Sens, Loerrach in Germany, Lakewood, Colorado in the United States and Senigallia, Italy.
[edit] Culture
[edit] Shopping
The city is a popular shopping centre, with its unique Rows, or galleries, (basically two levels of shops) which date from medieval times. The city is heavily populated by chain stores both in the centre and on retail parks to the west, and also features two indoor shopping centres, an indoor market and a department store, Brown's of Chester, once known as "the Harrods of the North", now absorbed by the Debenhams chain. There are two main indoor shopping centres, the Grosvenor Mall and the Forum. The latter refers to the city's Roman past, and is to be demolished in the Northgate Development to make way for new shopping streets, a new indoor market, a new library and a performing arts centre.
[edit] Arts and Sport
The city has two cinemas and a theatre, the Gateway Theatre, and in the summer the city hosts the annual Chester Music Festival, the Midsummer Watch Parade]] and the Chester Mystery Plays, which date from medieval times. Numerous pubs and wine bars populate the city, some of which are medieval, and Chester also has some nightclubs. Also to the east side of the city are the UK's largest zoological gardens, Chester Zoo. Chester has its own film society. The Gateway Theatre is due to be demolished at the end of 2006 as part of the city's Northgate Development. The Northgate Development will include a replacement arts centre, due to open in 2009.
The city features the Grosvenor Museum, which contains exhibitions about the city's Roman past and a reconstructed Georgian house. The Dewa Roman Experience, completely dedicated to the city's Roman heritage, is also based in the centre of the city, as is the Chester Heritage Centre and the Cheshire Military Museum.
The city has a football team, Chester City F.C., which plays at the Saunders Honda Stadium , a national basketball team, the Chester Jets, which plays in the city's Northgate Arena leisure centre and a wheelchair basketball team, the Chester Wheelchair Jets. Chester also boasts a successful hockey club, Chester HC, which plays at the County Sports Club on Plas Newton Lane.
The River Dee is also home to several rowing clubs, notably Grosvenor Rowing Club and Royal Chester Rowing Club as well as two school ones 'King's Chester Rowing Club' and 'Queen's Park High Rowing Club'. The weir is regularly used by a number of local canoe and kayak clubs.
[edit] Media
Chester's newspapers are the daily Chester Evening Leader, the weekly Chester Chronicle, and the free newspapers Chester Mail and Chester Standard. Dee 106.3 is the city's own radio station, with Wrexham's Marcher Sound and BBC Radio Merseyside also broadcasting locally. Chester is the city where Channel 4's soap-opera Hollyoaks is set (although most filming takes place around Liverpool).
[edit] Famous Cestrians
- Russ Abbot, actor and musician
- Emily Booth, actor
- Jeff Green, comedian
- Thomas Brassey, civil engineer, railway contractor
- Sir Adrian Boult, orchestral conductor
- Leonard Cheshire, RAF pilot, charity worker.
- Daniel Craig, actor
- Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster
- Randolph Caldecott, artist and Illustrator
- William De Morgan, potter
- Doug Ellis, former chairman of Aston Villa Football Club
- Thomas Heaton, footballer
- A. S. Hornby, lexicographer
- Hugh Lloyd, actor
- Eveleigh Moore-Dutton, Conservative politician
- Russ Morgan, member of the band K-Klass
- Danny Murphy, footballer
- Michael Owen, footballer
- Ronald Pickup, actor
- Basil Radford, actor
- David Roberts, engineer and inventor of the caterpillar track
- L. T. C. Rolt, biographer, engineer, canal enthusiast, writer
- Alex Sanderson, rugby union player
- Beatrice Tinsley, cosmologist
- Anthony Thwaite, poet
- Helen Willetts, weather forecast presenter, former international badminton player
- Mansun, successful Britpop band who scored a No. 1 album in 1997
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