Walking Chester City Walls Part 2: Norman Castle to Roman Amphitheatre

Continued from Part 1: Eastgate to the Racecourse

CHESTER long held a special position within regal control over the country. The Earldom of Chester was created shortly after the Norman Conquest, around AD 1070-71, with the title and powers of a ‘County Palatine’ granted to the earls by William the Conqueror, essentially a separate fuedal domain designed for defence of the frontier zone along the Welsh Marches. Chester, along with Shrewsbury and Hereford, were granted this privileged status in which the nobleman, or ‘counts palatine’, swore allegiance to the monarch yet had the power to rule the county largely independently of the king. 

This status meant the palatinate of Cheshire was effectively excluded from King John's Magna Carta. Ranulf, 3rd Earl of Chester, produced a local charter, issued in 1215 or 1216, which although some of its articles were similar to the Runnymede Charter, granted privileges to Cheshire's barons that were not extended to other barons in the rest of England under the Magna Carta.

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9. Chester Castle
Once a great stone fortress Chester Castle was dominant as the seat of power in the North-West. Enclosed by the city walls the castle is strategically located at the south-west corner of the city overlooking the River Dee, the port of Chester and the Old Dee Bridge carrying the main route in to Wales.

Chester's first castle was built at the instruction of William the Conqueror in 1070. The original structure being a motte-and-bailey timber castle with a wooden tower. Throughout Norman times the castle was the seat of the Earls of Chester, some of the most powerful nobles in the country. The second Earl of Chester, Hugh Lupus (the Wolf) d'Avranches held his parliament there. The Norman castle was rebuilt and extended by successive Earls of Chester, the wooden tower on the summit of the motte replaced by a square stone tower, known as the Flag Tower in the 12th century, the oldest stone work on the site. Once the central keep but now much reduced in height it is not visible as you walk the walls.

When the last Norman Earl died without issue in 1237 the Crown annexed the Earldom of Chester. Since 1301 the earldom of Chester has been held by successive Prince of Wales, the immediate heir to the throne. A tradition started by Edward I during his conquest of Wales, the title Prince of Wales was used by the Welsh nobility since the 12th century and later reclaimed by Owain Glyn Dŵr during his early-15th century rebellion. The first English Prince of Wales was the youngest son of Edward I, Edward of Caernarfon born at the castle in 1284 and future King Edward II.

During the 13th century Henry III and Edward I used Chester castle as their military headquarters during their Welsh campaigns. Henry and later his son Edward carried out considerable work at the castle strengthening much of the timber defences with stone, notably the outer bailey, where the pallisade was replaced by a great stone wall in 1247-51. 

It was at Chester castle that Richard II’s reign effectively came to an end when he was imprisoned there by Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. Along with Richard II, Eleanor Cobham, and Andrew de Moray, famous at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, were all imprisoned in the Agricola Tower at some time. Built in sandstone ashlar the 12th-century the Agricola Tower (or Chapel Tower) was the original gateway in to the inner bailey of the castle with the now blocked passage arch clearly visible. On the first floor is the chapel of St Mary de Castro, which is said to contain some exceptionally fine wall paintings dating from around 1240.

Alarmingly much of the medieval castle was demolished during Thomas Harrison's radical rebuilding in the 18th and 19th centuries with only the Agricola tower, the lower half of the Flag Tower and occasional patches of medieval walling surviving.

Turning east at the castle continuing on the city walls with the River Dee on your right you soon arrive at Bridgegate and the old bridge across the River Dee. A traffic control system operates here owing to the narrowness of the gate and the bridge. Cross the bridge and head towards Handbridge.

10. Bridgegate & The Old Dee bridge
Originally a Roman bridge that straddled the River Dee linking the quarries at Handbridge to the fortress of Deva. The 14th century Old Dee Bridge was built in stone after several of the earlier timber bridges were swept away in high waters. In 1600 a large square tower was built on its centre, which, with upstream pipes and a water wheel on the weir, pumped water into the city, the first such system outside London. The tower was destroyed during the Civil War. The seven arches are unequally spaced owing to lack of firm foundations in the river bed. A toll was charged until 1885. On crossing the bridge arriving on the south bank of the Dee you will see a signpost pointing across the road to Edgar’s Field, enter through the children’s play area next to the Ship Inn.

11. The Minerva Shrine (Edgar's Field)
Walk through the play area into Edgar’s Field where you will see a large outcrop ahead. According to local tradition Edgar’s Field is named after the Saxon King Edgar was allegedly rowed up the River Dee by eight Saxon princes in AD 973. Rumours of a royal palace here appear to be unfounded. In Roman times this was a red sandstone quarry active mainly in the 2nd century and used extensively in the buildings of the Roman fortress.

On the face of the rock outcrop is a badly weathered carving of the Roman goddess Minerva. Standing within a stylised temple, holding a spear in her right hand and possibly a shield in her left, an owl is perched on her left shoulder with an altar shown to her right. It is thought that there may have been a niche that could be used for offerings. Quarrying took place in Handbridge until the 19th century, so although in poor condition today, knowing how destructive quarrying can be it is surprising that the shrine has survived at all.

Minerva was one of the most important deities of the Roman state; at Handbridge she is depicted as goddess of crafts, yet she was also patron of all the rivers and springs in Britannia. Although not a water goddess, at Roman Bath she became equated with the Celtic goddess Sulis and presided over the healing hot springs. Images of deities carved into the solid rock are very rare in Roman Britain, yet the choice of Minerva in a classical style reflects the culture of the Roman soldiers based at Chester. In 1861 a Roman Altar was found in Bridge Street Row east, which read: “To The goddess Minerva, Furius Fortunatus, Senior Master, fulfilled his vow" (RIB 457)  

From the Old Dee Bridge you obtain a close up look at the weir in the river, built in the 11th century by Hugh Lupus to power grain mills. Further along the north bank below the medieval wall are The Groves stretching from the bridge to Grosvenor Park. From the Groves you can take a boat trip up river to Iron Bridge or listen to entertainment from the bandstand. 

 

12. The Roman Gardens
Rejoining the city walls from The Groves you are now at the corner of the south and east walls. Further along the east wall, below right, is The Roman Garden which lies just outside the Roman fortress. This is something of a misnomer as there was no Roman garden here, the area was created to display an assortment of finds from the Roman fortress. The collection was assembled in 1949 and includes fragments from military buildings, the main baths and the legionary headquarters such as column pieces, part of an altar and a reconstructed Roman hypercaust. To enter the Roman Gardens leave the city wall at The Newgate and immediately turn right.

A change in the masonry below the east wall below where you just walked can clearly be seen from the Roman Garden which marks the site of a breach blasted through the city walls by Parliamentary cannon when Chester was besieged in 1644 – 1646 during the English Civil War. Leave the Gardens and return to The Newgate.

13. Newgate and Wolfgate
One of the most recent additions to the city walls, The Newgate was opened in 1938 to replace the old Wolfgate, first mentioned as ‘Wofuldegate’ in 1303, which had been rebuilt in the early 17th century but later was deemed too narrow for modern traffic. Wolfgate was retained and stands immediately to the north of the Newgate in its original position. From the top of Newgate the Roman amphitheatre across the road outside of the city walls irresistibly draws your attention and it is here we head next. Leave the city walls at Newgate and cross the road at Souter’s Lane to enter the site of the Roman amphitheatre.

14. The Roman Amphitheatre
In 1736 a small slate plaque was found in Fishmonger's Lane (now Newgate Street) in Chester with a relief carving of a retiarius (a gladiator with trident and net). This is said to be the only depiction of a retiarius with his net in his lefthand known in the whole Roman Empire. Soon after it disappeared. In 1978 the lost gladiator plaque from Chester turned up at Saffron Walden Museum, Essex, which had been in their museum since 1836. How it got to Essex remains a mystery. 

The Chester Gladiator

As a large legionary fortress archaeologists expected an amphitheatre to have been constructed at Chester but no evidence of one had been found at Chester. In 1929 workmen installing a boiler house beyond the south-east angle of the fortress unearthed a massive section of curved wall. WJ (Walrus) Williams immediately identified this as the outer wall of an amphitheatre. Professor Robert Newstead carried out initial investigations and trial trenching over the next two years to define the extent of the Roman amphitheatre. A new road threatened the future of the site but was eventually scrapped. The Chester Archaeological Society purchased St John’s House on the northern half of the amphitheatre to secure the site.

A major excavation was planned to commence in 1939 but was deferred owing the outbreak of the Second World War. Excavations finally took place in the 1960s when a large scale dig took place under the direction of Frederick Hugh Thompson led to exposure of the remains of much of the northern portion of a huge amphitheatre just outside the south-east corner of the Roman fortress that we see today.

Speed's map of Chester 1610,
road around the amphitheatre in red

John Speed’s 1610 map of Chester shows a bend in the road which, unknown at the time, preserved the shape around the northern sector of the amphitheatre. This road must have respected an ancient route around the structure. 

During excavations in 1966 an altar dedicated to Nemesis, the Roman goddess of vengeance and retribution was discovered at the amphitheatre. This altar was found in a small room behind the arena-wall, immediately west of the north entrance, which was presumably a shrine of Nemesis, called a 'Nemeseum' and thought to have been a place of worship for both performers and spectators. The altar at the amphitheatre today is a replica, the original now housed in the Grosvenor Museum. 

Keith Matthews carried out minor excavations in 2000 for Chester City Council. Then between 2004-06 further excavations took place led jointly by Tony Wilmott (English Heritage) and Dan Garner (Chester City Council). Their work revealed that the first amphitheatre, probably constructed around AD 70 by II Legion Adiutrix, consisting of an earthen bank between the outer wall and the sunken arena enclosed by a stone wall. 

In AD 87 II Legion Adiutrix was recalled by emperor Domitian to the continent to serve in the Dacian Wars. II Adiutrix was formed in AD 70 by Emperor Vespasian, drawing from Naval marines of the Ravenna fleet. Gnaeus Julius Agricola, governor of Britain, moved II Adiutrix from Lincoln to the mouth of the River Dee on the northern Welsh border, to construct the legionary fortress at Chester (Deva) as part of the reorganisation of the Legions in Britain. Installing a legionary fortress on the Cheshire Plain effectively putting a Roman wedge between the Brigantes in the north of England and the Ordovices in Wales would be critical to the success of Agricola’s campaign to subjugate the local tribes. No doubt the naval experience of II Adiutrix was significant for construction of the harbour at Deva which would be essential for supplying the Legions.

In AD 88 the XX Legion Valera Victrix was pulled back from the fort at Inchtuthil overlooking the river Tay in Scotland and sent to Deva to replace II Adiutrix. The XX Legion spent around three hundred years at Deva but units were frequently pulled away for various campaigns, the level of maintenance of the fortress reciprocal to the legion’s presence or absence.

The XX Legion set about rebuilding Deva in stone and brick, much of it supplied from the legionary tile and pottery factory at Holt, near Wrexham. Around AD 100 a timber seating framework was installed with external stairways leading to upper level seating of the amphitheatre. Evidence for stalls selling hot take-away food from portable cookers and gladiatorial souvenirs was found around the outside of the amphitheatre. Yellow sand, to soak up and highlight bloodshed, was imported for use in the arena, and stored locally.

During the excavations of 2004-06 a large stone block with an iron ring secured into its surface was discovered in the centre of the arena. This stone has been described as a ‘tethering block’ used for securing wild animals during staged beast hunts (venationes). A replica stone is displayed in the open arena today.

Around AD 120 units of the XX Legion were called north for the construction of Hadrian's wall (AD 122-128). At the fort of Vindolanda, just south of Hadrian's Wall, we find evidence of the legion’s presence in the carved insignia of the boar of XX Legion. Twenty years later units from the XX Legion were active further north in the construction of the turf rampart known as Antonine wall (AD 142-147) at the command of Emperor Antoninus Pius. The XX Legion were active again in the north between AD 155 and 158 when a widespread revolt broke out among the tribes of northern Britain.

The amphitheatre seems to have gone out of use by the mid-2nd century AD, possibly coinciding with the posting of XX Legion to northern England due to unrest in the northern tribes and the construction of Hadrian's Wall. During this period the amphitheatre was neglected and fell into disrepair with the arena used as a rubbish dump. 

Around AD 191 Clodius Albinus was made governor of Britain with control of its three legions. Following the assassination of Pertinax in AD 196 Clodius Albinus was declared emperor by the legions of Britain. He took much of the British garrison with him to the continent, but after a number of engagements was defeated outside Lugdunum (Lyon) by Septimius Severus the following year. In AD 197 the XX Legion returned to Deva Victrix where they carried out repairs and further construction work.

In AD 208 Septimius Severus came to Britain, in an attempt to conquer the Caledonian tribes of northern Britain, strengthening Hadrian’s Wall and re-occupying the Antonine Wall. Again units were pulled from garrison at Deva with the XX Legion supporting Severus in the Caledonian campaigns of AD 211-213. The XX Legion returned to Deva during the reign of Severus' son Caracalla (AD 211-217) carrying out restoration work to the fortress and other civil engineering projects. 

(after Wilmott & Garner, 2007)

In the first quarter of 3rd century a new amphitheatre was constructed around and totally enclosing the old structure at Deva; the new outer wall was constructed 1.8m (6ft) outside the outer wall of the first structure, making it the largest and most impressive amphitheatre in Britain. The amphitheatre was reinstated for only a short period, possibly to celebrate a particular event and then not maintained after. This is the largest known amphitheatre in Britain, estimated at 40ft high and able to seat 7,000 spectators. Yet, to date, less than half of the amphitheatre has been excavated as the remainder sits beneath a listed building.

During the excavations of 2004-06 a small three-sided, stone-built structure painted on the inside was discovered by the north entrance. This would have been on the outer wall of the first amphitheatre. It has been suggested that this small room may have started as a ‘carcer’ then later converted to a Nemeseum. In most amphitheatres, these shrines were outside the arena. This small shrine may have originally housed the altar to Nemesis which was moved inside the later structure as found by Thompson in the 1960’s.

The XX Legion was still active during the reign of the usurpers Carausius, AD 286-293 and Allectus AD293-296, but is not mentioned from the 4th century. It is possible the Legion was disbanded in AD 305 when the Roman emperor Constantius I Chlorus recovered Britain following the usurpations of Carausius and Allectus, he certainly replaced all legionary officers involved in the revolt. During the Diocletianic Persecution Constantius made little effort to implement the decrees in the western provinces that were under his control, limiting his response to destroying a handful of churches. When he died in July AD 306 at Eboracum (York) his son Constantine (the Great) was declared emperor in the west by the legions at York; he would become the first Christian emperor of Rome. 

Alternatively, the XX Legion may have been pulled out of Britain when Magnus Maximus rebelled in AD 383 to pursue his ambitions as Emperor. However, after the end of the 4th century, the fortress was abandoned by the Romans.

After Rome: Into the Dark
Following Thompson’s excavations in the 1960’s it was suggested that a series of postholes in the centre of the arena were identified as Roman and used for temporary military ceremonies. Thompson used machinery to empty the arena to what he considered was the Roman level, he later accepted that this had destroyed evidence for the late and post-Roman history of the site. 

The idea of a ceremonial platform was dismissed after further archaeological investigations in the 2000’s. The rectilinear pattern of the postholes was interpreted as evidence for a 5th or 6th century timber structure at the centre of the arena and was proposed as a possible Dark Age chieftain’s hall, or possibly an ecclesiastical building; the structure certainly stood long enough to require rebuilding at least once. Later, large blocks were inserted in the east entrance with probably only the northern entrance still in use, this seems to be confirmed by the metalled path leading from this entrance to what has been interpreted as timber buildings at the centre of the arena. The concept of the disused amphitheatre converted into the fortified residence of a high status Dark Age individual certainly has its attractions and evidently appealed to some historians.

The re-use of the amphitheatre in the post-Roman period has led to attempts to link the structure to the famous Round Table of the legendary King Arthur, a concept which was presented in a television program in 2010. The program ‘King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed’ first aired on The History Channel on 19th July 2010 and was widely reported in the national press as “The recent discovery of an amphitheatre with an execution stone and wooden memorial to Christian martyrs . . . .” concluding, “That is the clincher. The discovery of the shrine within the amphitheatre means that Chester was the site of Arthur’s court and his legendary Round Table”. [See Note]

As time moved on the amphitheatre was robbed of the majority of its stonework for civil building projects in the city. The height of the structure must have been substantially reduced and then being largely neglected the remains became covered over and had disappeared from sight by the 12th century and largely forgotten until its rediscovery in 1929. 

In the 17th Century Dee House, now a Grade II listed building, was built over the southern half of the amphitheatre. Consequently, none of the structure of the amphitheatre above modern ground level has survived here, but there is likely to be Roman archaeology under the foundations of Dee House. There is currently some debate over the future of Dee House which is now empty and in a “significant state of disrepair” raising the question whether it should be demolished to allow the remainder of the amphitheatre to be exposed. However, it is considered little of the Roman structure would have survived under Dee House making further excavation of limited value; it is a sad state of affairs when a derelict building is preventing the complete excavation of the largest Roman amphitheatre in Britain, the historical importance of which cannot be overstated.

Across the walkway on the opposite side of the arena is St John’s Church.

15. St. John's Church
The current Church of St. John the Baptist is sited beside the Roman amphitheatre, just beyond the city walls and overlooking the River Dee. St John's is Chester's oldest Church and has been a site of Christian Worship for nearly thirteen centuries. There are some 9th century crosses displayed inside the church, yet it is claimed that there has been a church on this site since AD 689 when Æthelred king of Mercia (674–704), youngest son of Penda the pagan king, founded an important Saxon Minster. A stained glass window in the church depicts King Æthelred and a white hind illustrating the legend that the king desired to build a church and was told to site it where he saw a white hind. Yet, the siting of the church does suggest an association with the amphitheatre; it has been suggested that the east entrance of the amphitheatre may have been reused as the crypt of the 7th century church or even an earlier chapel.

The late-7th century date for the foundation of the church sits comfortably with the conversion date of Mercia. Following the conversion to Christianity of King Peada, eldest son of Penda, around AD 656 the religion was firmly established in the kingdom by the late 7th century during the reign of Æthelred, a pious and devout Christian king. He abdicated in 704 to become a monk and abbot at Bardney where he died.

Excavation has shown that the walls on the eastern side of the amphitheatre adjacent the church have been almost entirely robbed. It's fairly certain that much of the stone used in the construction of the early church was robbed from the remains of the amphitheatre. The Saxon church is thought to have been enlarged by Æthelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians, in the early-10th century during her re-fortification work creating a Saxon burh, again, using stone robbed taken the amphitheatre. The amphitheatre walls were robbed again in the 11th century for the conversion into Chester’s first cathedral when St John’s was partially rebuilt by Bishop Peter of Mercia. It was used as a cathedral from 1075 to 1102, when the see of Lichfield transferred to Chester. St John’s then became an important Collegiate Church throughout the medieval period. The amphitheatre was probably part of the precinct of St John’s until the Dissolution. In the 16th Century, following the Reformation, St. John's became a Parish Church. 

King Harold at Chester
St John’s church is associated with the odd tradition of the survival of King Harold after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. King Harold is said to have lived at the chapel of St James near St John’s church after fleeing from the battlle field.

The Chester story is mentioned in The Polychronicon by Ranulf Higden (c.1280-1364), a Benedictine Monk of the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester, and says the story was popularized by Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), c.1146-1223, who claimed Harold escaped the battle with a wound to the eye and became an anchorite in a cave or rock shelter near St. John's Church where he was cared for by his mistress, Edith Swan Neck. 

St Jame's Chapel
Did King Harold stay here after the Battle of Hastings?

Why would Harold flee from the south coast to Chester nearly 300 miles away? The city has a strong association with Harold's family, and some of the lands that became the Earldom of Chester had previously belonged to Harold's family. Did Gerald of Wales invent this story or was he pulling from a local tradition?

Higden claims that the tale is well known in the City and “Alredus Ryvallense records in his 'Life of St. Edward' that Harold dies miserably and in a state of penitence". The ‘Vita S. Eduardi Confessoris’ (The Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor) was written by Aelred of Rievaulx, (born c.1110-1167) Cistercian abbot at Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, after witnessing the translation of St. Edward the Confessor’s body in 1163.

The anonymous Vita Haroldi a Latin work from around 1205 also suggests Harold survived the battle, travelled to the continent, and lived as a hermit. It is thought to have been written at Waltham Abbey, the traditional burial site of King Harold .  

16. South-East Angle of the Roman Fortress
On a grassed area immediately below the City Walls on Pepper Street, adjacent to the Wolfgate are the remains of a Roman tower facing the amphitheatre. This is the base of an angle tower which was sited on the south-east corner of the original Roman fortress of Deva Victrix. In the Middle Ages Chester’s City Walls were rebuilt and extended at this point up to the back wall of the Roman south-east angle tower so that the Roman tower lay slightly forward of the later medieval wall.

It is at this point, the south-east corner of the Roman fortress, where the medieval wall diverges from the original Roman wall that Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, extended to the south as far as the banks of the River Dee, as at St Martin’s Gate to Boneswaldesthorne's Tower in the north-west corner. By extending the old Roman walls to the banks of the River Dee from the corners of the south-east corner and the north-west of the fortress the Saxons significantly increased the defensive circuit around Chester in response to the Viking threat. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle simply records for AD 907: “Here Chester restored.” 

Return to the city walls by going up the steps at Newgate and follow the walkway in a northerly direction to return to Eastgate. Leave the walls here and walk along Eastgate Street into the centre of this historic city.

Newgate

17. The Rows
You soon come to the intersection of the four main streets, Watergate Street, Northgate Street, Bridge Street and Eastgate Street, which meet at the High Cross. These four streets follow the alignment of the original Roman roads running through the camp at Deva from the fortress gates, the cross-road is offset at what was the site of the Roman Principia, the administrative centre, stretching from St Peter's church to the Market Hall.

Radiating from the cross road along each of these street are tall timber framed black and white buildings, known as ‘The Rows’, one of the most distinctive architectural features of Chester that have existed at least since the late 13th century, but today most of these are Victorian or later faced with mock Tudor woodwork.

The Rows are a unique system of covered walkways on the first floor with some of the best shops in the city and commercial properties on two levels. They are open to the street on one side and the levels can be reached from stairs at ground level. Further shops are on the ground level.

Many of the buildings in the Rows were constructed with stone undercrofts beneath, known locally as ‘crypts’, above this most of the buildings in the Rows were constructed of timber. Their precise origins are unknown, yet they appear to have been built directly on top of the remains of the Roman fortress; several of the buildings in Chester city centre have Roman architecture in their cellars. For example, 39 Bridge Street has the remains of a Roman hypercaust in its cellar and in the basement of The Pret a Manger on Northgate Street are huge sandstone pillar bases that supported the roof of the Principia. 

Bishop Lloyd’s Palace
Perhaps the most famous building of the Chester Rows is Bishop Lloyd's Palace, 41 Watergate Street, one of the oldest buildings on the historic Rows. Once described as the best house in Chester, Bishop Lloyd's Palace is an early 17th Century timber-framed building, a listed Grade 1 building with fine carvings on the gable elevations and at Row level.  The interior includes a magnificent period piece fireplace and high decorated plaster ceilings.

The building incorporates a section of the Chester Rows on the first floor with meeting rooms and the headquarters of Chester Civic Trust above. The house has been associated with George Lloyd, Bishop of Chester 1605-1615. Lloyd was consecrated bishop of Sodor and Man in 1600, but he exchanged the see for Chester in 1604 where he reversed the anti-Puritan policy of Richard Vaughan, his predecessor.

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Walking Chester City Walls - Part 1: Eastgate to the Racecourse

CHESTER BOASTS THE MOST COMPLETE CITY WALLS IN BRITAIN. In the past many major settlements were defended by walls, but Chester is the only city in Britain with a complete surviving circuit around the city, the oldest sections 2,000 years old. From the Romans to the time of the Plantagenet kings Chester was recognised as the most important seaport in the North-West for around 1,500 years.

Walking the complete circuit is about 2 miles and provides a fascinating glimpse into Chester's long history. First enclosed by the Roman timber fort of Deva on the mouth of the River Dee in the 1st century AD, perhaps as early as AD 60, by II Legion Adiutrix in the classic playing card shape enclosed by a turf rampart and a wooden palisade. In 100 AD after XX Legion Valeria Victrix moved in the Roman’s rebuilt the fortress in stone with the suffix from the Legion appended to the name, hence ‘Deva Victrix’. It became the main base for the Roman army in North Wales and North-West England and a rumoured invasion of Ireland. The XX Legion were withdrawn from Deva Victrix twenty years later to build Hadrian’s Wall. Around AD 200 the legion returned and rebuilt and expanded the site to become the largest Roman fort in Roman Britain housing some 5.500 soldiers. The legion remained at Deva until around AD 390.

The Roman defences were extended and enhanced by the Saxons in the 10th century, when Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians re-fortified the town in AD 907 extending the Roman walls to the banks of the river Dee as part of the network of burhs in the fight against the Vikings. Æthelflæd is said to have translated the relics of Saint Weburgh to Chester.

The Anglo-Saxons called the city "Legacaestir" (fortress city of the legions) derived from the Latin term "castra legionis," (a fortified military camp), which evolved into the Old English word "ceaster" and eventually to ‘Chester’.

The earldoms of Hereford, Shrewsbury and Chester were created by William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman Conquest to control the Welsh border region, the Marches. The current castle occupies the same site as the first castle on the site, an earth and timber ‘motte-and-bailey’ fortress built in the south-west corner of the city in AD 1070 that became the administrative centre of the earldom of Chester. 

In the 12th century the Normans earls of Chester rebuilt the castle in stone and the defensive walls were improved and extended to form a complete circuit around the medieval city. The defences were further enhanced in the Middle Ages with tall projecting towers and the addition of impressive gateways. Attacked and damaged during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, the defensive circuit surrounding the city has been altered and repaired many times over the centuries to ensure Chester was one of the most protected and strategically important cities in the country throughout the centuries.

Since the 18th century the city walls have been a fashionable walk with the four main gateways of Northgate, Eastgate, Watergate and Bridgegate still today providing the main access points onto the city walls. Where else can you experience over two thousand years of history in a modern city in one walk. In the television series ‘Britain’s Most Historic Towns’ professor Alice Roberts awarded Chester the accolade of Britain’s Most Roman Town. Who could argue with that.

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The Walk
We took the Park and Ride bus service from Boughton Heath into the centre of Chester, arriving at Foregate Street lined with timber framed shops. Chester Park and Ride is excellent value and runs every 15 minutes and takes all the hassle out of driving and parking in the city. Once arriving at Foregate Street enter the historic core of the city through Eastgate Street famous for its clock atop the Eastgate. We walked the city walls in an anticlockwise direction, leaving the best to last. 

Part 1: Eastgate to the Racecourse

1. Eastgate Clock
Originally, Eastgate was the Roman entrance to Deva Victrix, the present gate was widened and rebuilt in the 18th century to allow coaches into the city centre. The Eastgate clock, a famous landmark, was added in the Victorian age to celebrate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897. The Eastgate clock is said to be the second most photographed timepiece in Britain after Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament in London. At the Eastgate is a recess in the wall which leads up some steps to the City Walls. Walking past the clock you soon arrive at Chester Cathedral which has occupied the north-eastern corner of the old city for over a thousand years.

2. Chester Cathedral
This is the resting place of Saint Werburgh, a 7th century Mercian Princess who became patron saint of Chester. Although there has been a church on this site since the 7th century the association with Werburgh did not begin until some three centuries later. 

The first church to have been built on the cathedral site was founded in the 7th century and dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. In the late 9th or early 10th century the church was rededicated to the 7th century Mercian Princess St Werburgh, after her relics were moved to Chester from Hanbury, Staffordshire, probably by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, the daughter of Alfred the Great.

Hugh d'Avranches (le Gros, or Lupus), first Earl of Chester, established the Benedictine Abbey on this site in AD 1092 with the Abbey church dedicated to St. Werburgh. Ranulf Higden, a monk of the Abbey of St. Werburgh tells us that St Werburgh's remains were translated to Chester in AD 875 and housed in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Chester. Another monk from the abbey, Henry Bradshaw records in his hagiography of Chester’s patron saint that when Chester was restored c.907 by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, she enlarged the church as a college of secular cannons and dedicated it to St Werburgh. In 1540 Henry VIII dissolved the Benedictine monastery during the Dissolution of the Monasteries but retained the Abbey church of St. Peter and St. Paul which was re-founded as Chester Cathedral a year later.

Chester Cathedral has long been a place of worship and pilgrimage; today it is the northern terminus of the Two Saints Way long distance footpath linking St Werburgh of Chester to St Chad at Lichfield 93 miles away travelling through the heart of ancient Mercia.

3. King Charles Tower
Return to the City Walls and follow the east wall (anticlockwise) until at the corner with the north wall you come to the King Charles Tower, a medieval watch-tower built in the 13th century that had fallen into disrepair through lack of funds. It was repaired in 1613 with the emblem of the restorers, the Phoenix, placed above the door, hence it was known as the Phoenix Tower. It was later renamed after the king watched the defeat of his army at the Battle of Rowton Moor in 1645. 

From here you can clearly see the Shropshire Union Canal (formerly the Chester Canal) below you as you look over the wall. Along this stretch of wall, particularly below Rufus Court, are several courses of Roman masonry used as the foundation for the medieval walls which are best viewed from the canal.

4. Along the North Wall
After crossing the Northgate you come to the Bridge of Sighs, a footbridge over the canal that was used to take prisoners from the city gaol to the former Chapel of St John where they could repent prior to their execution. Next we come to Pemberton’s Parlour, formerly know as the Goblin Tower, but renamed after a former mayor who built a rope bridge here. As you continue along the north wall, you arrive at Morgan's Mount, an observation platform with gun emplacement built in 1645 during the English Civil War to hold Morgan’s cannon. 

In the late 19th century a large collection of Roman tombstones were discovered in the north wall that had been re-used in its reconstruction during the 3rd - 4th century, not an uncommon practice in Roman times. The ancient practice of ‘Spoliation’ (from the Latin for 'spoils') was common in late antiquity when entire redundant structures were known to have been comprehensively demolished and the materials, including inscription stones and tombstones, re-used in the construction of new buildings. 

During repairs to a section of the lower course of the wall near Morgan’s Mount in 1883 pieces of Roman masonry, one was clearly part of a tombstone, were discovered among the fill of the wall. No further investigations were carried out at this time yet during further repair work between Northgate and the King Charles Tower in 1887 a substantial amount of Roman masonry was found, much from funerary monuments which has been used to repair lower courses of the wall. The finds were so numerous that between 1890 and 1892 they called in the Chester Archaeological Society to investigate the wall by Northgate.

More than 150 stones were found from the investigations of 1883, 1887 and the 1890-92. The collection is now housed in the Grosvenor Museum and demonstrates the extraordinary diversity in the Roman Army with soldiers being drawn from all corners of the Roman Empire. One of the most unusual stones in the museum’s collection is the tombstone of a Sarmatian cavalryman in his armour and distinctive conical helmet carrying a draco standard, hence known as the ‘Draconarius Tombstone’. The inscription is missing where the stone has broken. 

In AD 175 the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius defeated the Sarmatian Iazyges in the Marcomannic Wars. The Iazyges were required to provide 8,000 cavalry auxiliaries for the Roman army. The historian Cassius Dio says 5,500 of them were posted to Britain. The ‘Draconarius Tombstone’ is thought to be one of the Iazyges, and accordingly, date from this period. [*See: Note*]

5. St Martin’s Gate
Moving on we soon arrive at St Martin’s Gate, the most recent addition to the City Walls being constructed during the 1960s as part of the Northgate Regeneration Project for the Inner Ring Road system. Further archaeological investigations prior to the construction work for the ring road identified the remains of a Roman tower which would have formed the north-west corner of the Roman fort. The new gate was named after St Martin’s Church that was demolished to make way for the new roadway and sadly with it the Roman tower.

6.  Bonewaldesthorne's Tower and the Water Tower
As you come to the end of the north wall arriving at the corner with the west wall you arrive at the Bonewaldesthorne's Tower. When Æthelflæd refortified Chester in the 10th century she extended the Roman walls from the north-west angle and at the south-east angle, near Newgate, to the banks of the River Dee, probably as earthen ramparts topped with a wooden palisade. At the north-west angle the extended fortifications ran from the Roman tower at the site of St Martin’s Gate to the bank of the River Dee.

It is thought that the Lady of the Mercians also built a watchtower on the site of Boneswaldesthorne's Tower at this strategically important location to protect the port. Very little of the 10th century defences have survived above ground and the current tower was built of red sandstone in the late medieval period. 

Overtime the River Dee continued to silt up and by the early 14th century ships could no longer reach the old port, the site where the Roodee racecourse is situated today. The solution was to build a tower in the river further downstream to allow ships to dock at its base and unload their merchandise. Originally known as the New Tower, the Water Tower was built between 1322 – 1325, by John de Helpston, a mason who had worked on the king’s castles in Wales.

Until the early 18th century the river turned sharply north-east towards the Watergate, in the form of a meander around the site of the racecourse, rather than in a straight line. It then flowed close to the medieval wall to the Water Tower, near the north-west corner of the city walls. The Water Tower would have stood in the river channel. The New Tower was attached to Bonewaldesthorne's Tower by a 30m (100ft) length of spur wall, much of it still visible today. These two towers were both built to defend the port but three hundred years apart owing to the shifting course of the River Dee. Yet, within a century of the New Tower’s construction, the Dee’s course had moved even further west, leaving the tower on dry land. The improved navigation in the 1730s forced the river channel further westwards leaving the Water Tower 200m (650ft) from the modern river. As the port declined the railway became an important means of trade, the line from Chester to North Wales was cut straight through the north-west corner of the City Walls in 1846 without deviation. 

At the Water Tower turn left and walk south along the line of the west wall along City Walls Road toward the Old Port and over Watergate and into Nuns Road toward the Roodee, with racing since 1539 said to be England’s oldest racecourse.

7. Watergate
During the Middle Ages when Chester was a thriving port the River Dee flowed close to the walls to Watergate. The Watergate controlled the entrance into the city from the old port, collecting tolls for goods brought in to the city. After the canalisation of the Dee in the 1730s a new port was built lower down the river. The present Watergate arch was built in 1788 to replace the medieval Watergate that had been badly damaged during the siege of Chester during the English Civil War. 

Leaving the Watergate you are now looking down on the rooftops of the Roodee racecourse buildings to your right. A small stone pillar beyond the racetrack is said to be the base of an ancient cross that is responsible for the name ‘Roodee’ from ‘rood’ (cross) and ‘eye’ (island). When there is no racing the public are allowed onto the track and you can walk across to this red sandstone pillar.

Opposite the modern racecourse was the site of three friaries all founded in the 13th century: Black friars (Dominican); Grey friars (Franciscan); and the White friars (Carmelite).  It is said that the steeple of the White friars church was used as a landmark for ships coming into port. The names of the roads opposite the racecourse identify the sites of the former friaries, while Nuns Road was so-named from the medieval St Mary’s Priory, a Benedictine nunnery, founded in the mid-12th century.

These religious houses occupied a significant portion (a quarter) of the walled city; the foundation of the friaries in the 13th century seems to be linked with the development of Chester as a result of Edward I's Welsh campaigns for which he used the town as his base. However, none of them survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII; the only remaining structural feature of the nunnery is an archway relocated in Grosvenor Park, yet the survival of their street names preserves their presence in Chester's history. 

8. The Roman Quay
In the 1st century AD the River Dee was a coastal estuary, the Roman fort of Deva, sited on a sandstone outcrop, was strategically positioned at the highest navigable point. When the Romans arrived the site of the Roodee racecourse was tidal with ground level considerably lower than today. Conventional wisdom tells us that the Romans built a massive quay wall here, then as the course of the river moved westward away from the Roman walls and the old port over centuries the area of the Roodee became a flat expanse of dry land. The medieval walls were built on top of the Roman remains with the race course now occupying the old flood plain.

The remains of the original Roman quay can still be seen on the city side of the racecourse a few metres in front of the medieval walls jutting out of an earth bank at the point where Black Friars road intersects Nun's Road. This so-called Roman ‘quay wall’ is traditionally considered as the only surviving feature of Deva’s Roman harbour. Although only a comparatively short section is now visible, this massive wall of large sandstone blocks runs for 200m (820ft) to Watergate, and is about 2.5m (8ft) thick with 1.5m (5ft) concrete backing. In 1884 they dug down for 4.5m (15ft) at the face of this wall, and even then did not reach the foundations. But this would have left vessels docked in port considerably lower by several metres than the top of the quayside, which seems a most unlikely scenario.

The requirement for such a substantial engineering work that is estimated to have used as much stone as the equivalent to more than half the entire circuit of the fortress curtain wall, remains a mystery. Suggestions for this huge wall include protection from tidal surges, to prevent the river undercutting the fort, or as a revetment to reclaim and terrace the steep natural slope down to the Roodee to increase building space for the canabae, the civil settlements that grew alongside legionary bases. But did it actually function as a quay where ships could be loaded and unloaded? Archaeologist David Mason [The Town and Port of Roman Chester, in Peter Carrington, ed, Deva Victrix: Roman Chester re-assessed, Monographs of the Chester Archaeological Society, 2002, pp.53-73] who has studied Chester for many years, argues that there is persuasive evidence to suggest that it did not.

Excavations in 1885 to install foundations for a new gasometer where the modern railway crosses the river Dee found oak timbers in the river bed in excess of 3 m in length, some of which had a point at one end encased in an iron sheath and set around with concrete. Identified by archaeologists as the piles of a substantial structure such as a wharf or jetty. Their similarity to iron-sheathed timbers found elsewhere in Roman structures, such as bridges, wharves, and jetties and the fact that they were surrounded by a mass of Roman material confirms they are of Roman construction.

Similar timbers had been found outside the Water Gate in 1874 during work to lay a new sewer outside the city walls, also at a considerable depth and again associated with Roman material, which has led to the interpretation that the piles represent opposite ends of a large landing stage extending from the eastern shoreline of the Roodee for a distance of about 350m (1,150ft). This concept never gained favour with preference settling for the quay wall.

Several hundred metres to the south, beneath the race course track these same excavations encountered a Roman burial at 1.80m (6ft) deep, containing two skeletons and a coin from the reign of the emperor Domitian, AD 81–96. The location of the burial indicates that the site of the racecourse must have been dry land in the early Roman period with considerable silt deposition along the east side of the Roodee by the time that Roman Chester (Deva) was founded. On examining water levels of the Dee, Mason argues that laden ships could only have approached the ‘quay wall’ at periods of high tide, but the height of the quayside would have been bizarrely some 5m higher than the deck level of a vessel tied up alongside.

Current thinking among some archaeologists and local historians is that the current position of the River Dee flowing around modern Chester is in a position similar to its location in Roman times, with the area of the racecourse was mudflats at low tide. The Roman port would have been located near the racecourse, but with the erection of a landing stage, as evidenced by the iron-sheathed timbers, joined to the ‘quay’ by a long pier projecting into the deepest part of the river channel allowing ships to dock under most tidal conditions.

Where does this leave the ‘quay’ wall? Mason argues that its main purpose was defence. The erection of defensive walls around legionary suburbs in the later Roman period is a phenomenon found at a number of fortresses. Mason proposes that the construction of a large wall at Chester was to protect the western sector of the canabae, the wealthiest section of the extramural settlement, which may have been considered vulnerable at the north-west edge of the Empire.

The 'quay wall' (after Mason, 2002)

The course of the ‘quay’ wall northward beyond the Watergate is unclear but it is thought to have continued along the frontage of the Roman Baths (excavated in 1989), immediately to the north. Mason then considers it must have then turned eastward to join the fortress defences, closing the north side. He suggests that it closely followed the line of the medieval north wall from Bonewaldesthorne’s Tower to the north-west angle tower that stood near St Martin’s Gate.

When Æthelflæd refortified Chester in the 10th century by extending the walls of the Roman fortress at the north-west angle (St Martin’s Gate) and the south-east angle (Wolfgate) to the banks of the River Dee it is likely that in the north-west sector her construction followed the line of Mason’s proposed eastern extension of this so-called ‘quay’ wall.

As you come to end of Nun’s Road, leaving the Roodee, cross the Grosvenor Road and Chester Castle is now on your left.

>> Continued in Part 2: Norman Castle to Roman Amphitheatre

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