Tuesday 24th
March 2020
After a few chores around the boat we visited the tourist sites in
Chester. Walking the walls, the sites are never far away.
The walls are said to be the most complete city walls in Britain,
encompassing the Medieval city, the full circuit measuring nearly 2 miles.
Although Roman in origin, most of what we see today is the result of Victorian
restorations.
The walls were last used as a fortification during the English Civil
Wars when Chester was a Royalist stronghold. The Parliamentarians held Chester
under siege for most of the wars and they apparently, used to catapult diseased
carcasses over the walls and into the city from a site near St. John’s Church.
Within the city walls, an ancient law that has never been repealed, allows the
killing of a Welshman, but only with a bow and arrow.
The Eastgate Clock sits above Eastgate, and one of the busiest
shopping streets, although almost completely deserted. The clock is said to be
the most photographed clock in the country, after Big Ben. We had to detour at
Eastgate as the walls were temporarily closed after a section had collapsed due
to developers digging too close to the wall.
The Roman Amphitheatre, the largest in Britain, is beside the walls at
Newgate, normally full of school parties. Next to the Amphitheatre are the
Roman Gardens where many artefacts discovered in the city are displayed
including a reconstructed hypocaust system, a system of central heating were
the floors are raised and cavities within the walls, circulate hot air around a
building. An original system was discovered in 1720 and can still be seen in
the basement of 39 Bridge Street. There is a section of wall within the gardens
that has clearly been rebuilt. This was the result of a breach in the wall
during the Civil War.
Roman Amphitheatre
There are particularly impressive views from the walls up and down the
River Dee and across the weir to the Old Dee Bridge. The weir, which nowadays
incorporates a salmon ladder, was built in 1093 to provide power to mills along
the banks of the river and to improve navigability. The Old Dee Bridge is the oldest bridge in the
city. Built on the site of a Roman bridge, the present structure dates from a
major rebuilding in 1387, and remarkably, still carries vehicular traffic
today.
The Grosvenor Bridge, built in 1832, is very elegant. The
arch of the bridge is also very high, built to allow the passage of sailing
ships beneath it. Beside the bridge is the area known as Roodee and contains
the racecourse. Chester held the first recorded race meeting in the country on
9th February 1539. Henry Gee was the Mayor of Chester at this time
and it is because of his surname that horses are still known as “gee-gee’s”!
Close to the canal basin is Bonewaldesthorne’s Tower and the Water
Tower. The Water Tower was built between 1322 and 1325 and originally actually
stood in the river as part of the defences of the port. There is a view from here
of a complex of transportation, the railway tracks below, carrying the line
into North Wales, a road and the canal basin and staircase locks, all vying for
position in a narrow space, criss-crossing each other. There are also lovely
views across to the Welsh Hills in the distance.
The walls follow above the deep canal cutting and, at Northgate Bridge
is the ‘Bridge of Sighs’, a very narrow bridge, built in 1793, that originally
led from Northgate Jail, across the canal, to a chapel in the Bluecoat School,
where condemned prisoners received the Last Rites before their execution.
At Phoenix, or King Charles’s Tower, there are views of the Cathedral
and across the city. It was said that from this tower in 1645 King Charles I
watched as his army was defeated by the Parliamentarians at the Battle of
Rowton Heath during the Civil War.
Phoenix, or King Charles’s, Tower
We then returned to the boat only to find that the Government had
ordered that people should remain at home as a means of preventing the spread
of the Corona Virus. We had commented during our walk, of the lack of people
with the streets being almost completely deserted. We had met just 6 people, although
these included 3 PCSO’s, not one of them either challenged us or told us of the
lock-down.
We felt quite guilty for having been out, and now feel uncomfortable
being in the city and so plan to leave tomorrow.
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