[Picture: Book cover]
[Picture: Chester, from Curzon Park]
THE
STRANGER’S HANDBOOK
TO CHESTER
AND ITS ENVIRONS;
CONTAINING
A SHORT SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES,
A Descriptive Walk round the Walls,
AND
A VISIT TO THE CATHEDRAL, CASTLE, AND EATON HALL.
BY THOMAS HUGHES.
WITH THIRTY-FOUR NEW ILLUSTRATIONS, BY GEORGE MEASOM.
* * * * *
“My guide, philosopher, and friend.”
* * * * *
ENTERED AT STATIONERS’. HALL.
CHESTER:
THOMAS CATHERALL, BOOKSELLER, EASTGATE ROW.
LONDON: WHITTAKER & CO., AND WARD & LOCK.
* * * * *
LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
* * * * *
TO
EDWARD HAWKINS, ESQ., F.R.S. & F.S.A.,
KEEPER OF THE ANTIQUITIES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
AND A “CHESHIRE MAN” WITHAL,
THIS NEW
STRANGER’S HANDBOOK TO THE CITY OF CHESTER
IS,
WITH A LIVELY SENSE OF HIS UNIFORM KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP,
GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Introduction.—The City of Chester under the Britons.—Chester 1
a Roman Colony.—The City a prey to the Danes and
Saxons.—Ethelfleda the Amazon.—Chester under the
Normans.—The Palatinate Earldom.—Royal Visits to
Chester.—The Plague.—The Siege of Chester.
CHAPTER II.
The Railway Station.—Chester the Terminus of Six 10
Railways.—Flookersbrook.—Lead Works.—Canal and
Bridge.—William Penn, the Quaker.—Foregate Street, and the
old Watling Street.—Post-Office, and Old Bank.—The East
Gate, Roman and Mediæval.—The East Gate of To-day
CHAPTER III.
The Walls of Chester, their Builders, and their History.—The 18
Cathedral.—The Phœnix Tower, and the Walls during the
Siege.—Beeston Castle.—The North Gate.—Training
College.—Morgan’s Mount, and Pemberton’s Parlour.—The Water
Tower.—Infirmary, and Gaol.—Linen Hall.—The Water Gate
CHAPTER IV.
The Walls, continued.—The Roodeye.—Chester Races.—The Castle 31
of the Olden Time, and the Castle of To-day.—The Grosvenor
Bridge.—Cæsar’s Tower.—Handbridge, and Edgar’s Cave.—Bridge
Gate.—Dee Mills and Bridge.—Causeway.—Queen’s Park, and
Wishing Steps.—The Newgate and its Traditions.—The East Gate
CHAPTER V.
The Streets of Chester.—East Gate Street, and Royal 43
Hotel.—The Ancient Rows of Chester.—An American’s “Notion”
of them.—The Architecture of the Rows and Streets.—The High
Cross.—The Pentice, and Conduit.—The City Bull-bait.—St
Peter’s Church
CHAPTER VI.
Watergate Street.—God’s Providence House.—Bishop Lloyd’s 54
House.—The Puppet Show Explosion.—Trinity Church.—Dean Swift
and the “Yacht.”—St. Martin’s and St. Bridget’s
Churches.—The Stanley Palace.—Watergate.—Port of Chester
CHAPTER VII.
Bridge Street.—Ancient Crypt.—The Blue Posts and the Knave 64
of Clubs.—Roman Bath.—Grosvenor Street.—New
Savings’-Bank.—The Cemetery.—Curzon Park, and Hough
Green.—The Port of Saltney.—St. Michael’s Church.—St.
Olave’s Church.—The Gamull House.—St. Mary’s Church
CHAPTER VIII.
North Gate Street.—Commercial Buildings.—The Rows.—The 79
Exchange.—Music Hall and Old Theatre.—Chester Cathedral.—St.
Oswald’s Church.—The Cloisters, and Chapter
House.—Promptuarium.—Refectory and King’s School
CHAPTER IX.
Abbey Square, Deanery, and Palace.—The Abbey Gates.—Chester 95
Market, and Abbot’s Fair.—North Gate, and Old City Gaol.—St.
John’s Hospital, and Blue School.—Newtown, and Christ
Church.—Railway Tunnel.—St. Thomas Chapel.—Training-College
CHAPTER X.
Llwyd, the Welsh Antiquary.—Chester Fair.—Tennis Court and 106
Theatre.—The Justing Croft.—The Bars.—Steam Mills.—Ragged
School.—Boughton, and St. Paul’s Church.—The ’Spital, and
George Marsh.—Roman Altar.—John Street, and Mechanics’
Institution.—Roman Catholic Convent.—St. John’s Church, and
its Ruins.—Jacob’s Well, and the Anchorite’s Cell.—The
Groves, and the Dee
CHAPTER XI.
The River Dee.—Chester Rowing Club.—The Earl’s Eye.—Villas 119
on Dee Banks.—The Water Works.—Eccleston.—Eaton Lodge, and
Iron Bridge.—Eaton Hall.—The Grosvenor Family.—Belgrave
Lodge.—The Interior of the Hall.—Eaton Gardens.—Grosvenor
Lodge
CHAPTER I.
Introduction.—The City of Chester under the Britons.—Chester a Roman
Colony.—The City a prey to the Danes and Saxons.—Ethelfleda the
Amazon.—Chester under the Romans.—The Palatinate Earldom.—Royal Visits to
Chester.—The Plague.—The Siege of Chester.
“RARE old city of CHESTER!” writes Albert Smith in his “Struggles and
Adventures of Christopher Tadpole,”—“Rare old city of Chester! Even in
these days of rocket-like travelling, a man might fly all over Great
Britain and Ireland, with an extra ‘day ticket’ for Berwick-upon-Tweed,
before he saw anything half so fine as the mouldering old walls and
towers of that venerable city, or looked upon anything half so fair as
the prospect of vale and mountain, wooded headland, and spire-pointed
plain, that surrounds it.” Well said, friend Albert;—echoed, too, far
and wide, by the thousands of visitors who are annually led to seek
entertainment within its Walls!
Situate on the northern banks of the River Dee, the deified stream of the
Ancient Britons,—built upon, or, as we ought rather to say, built _into_
the solid rock, for the principal streets within the Walls are almost
wholly excavations of several feet in depth—the city of Chester stands
forth before the world certainly the most curious city in the British
Isles, second to none of its fellows in martial strength or historic
importance, and as a faithful and enduring relic of the past, “peerless
and alone!”
First a settlement of the Ancient Britons—then a colony of imperial
Rome—afterwards a favourite city and frequent resort of the Anglo-Saxon
monarchs—now the camp and court of Hugh Lupus the Norman, nephew of the
Conqueror—then the key to the subjugation of Wales, and to its union with
the English crown—ever a city of loyalty and renown,—no admirer of the
curious and remarkable, none who seek after the ancient and honourable,
should fail to visit and explore the beauties of “rare old Chester.” The
eye of the stranger, be he Englishman or foreigner, European or American,
will here find an ample and luxuriant field for admiration: the man of
taste, who may linger within its Walls, will not depart ungratified; nor
will the antiquary search here in vain for some rich and profitable
treasures of investigation: in short, such is the antiquity, the
peculiarity of Chester, that the stranger who can pass through without
bestowing on it some little share of attention, must have a dull and
incurious eye indeed.
Before we proceed to point out to the visitor the numerous objects of
interest within the city, we must conform to the fashion prevalent in
such matters, and, tedious though it may seem, preface our description
with a condensed sketch of the
HISTORY OF CHESTER,
Some historians there are who, dealing largely in the marvellous, have
attributed to Chester an existence almost coeval with the Flood. Sir
Thomas Elyot, for instance, writing about 1520, gravely asserts that the
name of the city was originally Neomagus, and so called from its founder
Magus, the grandson of Japhet, the son of Noah, who first planted
inhabitants in these islands! Were this statement authenticated, Chester
would hold the dignified position of the oldest city in the universe;
but, credulous as we undoubtedly are on some points, we confess to a
modicum of infidelity upon this. It may have been, and from its
commanding position doubtless was, one of the earliest settlements of the
aboriginal inhabitants, Ancient Britons or otherwise; but farther than
this, no historian, desiring to be accurate, can safely go.
Ranulph Higden, a shorn monk of Chester Abbey, attributes to the city a
British foundation, namely, from Lleon Gawr, the vanquisher of the Picts,
a giant of mammoth size and stature, who built a city here, chiefly
_underground_, hewn out of the rock, and after a rude and disordered
fashion. But let the “barefooted friar” speak for himself, from Wynkyn
de Worde’s edition of his Chronicle, published A.D. 1495:—
“The Cyte of Legyons, that is Chestre, in the marches of Englonde,
towarde Wales, betwegne two armes of the see, that bee named _Dee_
and _Mersee_. Thys cyte in tyme of Britons, was hede and chyefe cyte
of all Venedocia, that is, North Wales. Thys cyte in Brytyshe speche
bete Carthleon, Chestre in Englyshe, and Cyte of Legyons also. For
there laye a wynter the legyons that Julius Cezar sent for to wyne
Irlonde. And after, Claudius Cezar sent legyons out of the cyte for
to wynn the Islands that be called Orcades. Thys cyte hath plente of
lyveland, of corn, of fleshe, and specyally of samon. Thys cyte
receyveth grate marchandyse, and sendeth out also. Northumbres
destroyed thys cyte sometyme, but Elfreda, lady of Mercia, bylded it
agayn, and made it mouch more.
“In thys cyte ben ways under erth, with vowtes and stone werke,
wonderfully wrought, three chambred werkes, grete stones ingrave with
old mannes names there in. Thys is that cyte that Ethelfrede, Kyng
of Northumberlonde, destroyed, and sloughe there fast by nygh two
thousonde monks of the mynster of Bangor. Thys is the cyte that Kyng
Edgar cam to, some tyme, with seven Kyngs that were subject to hym.”
The delectable style of building above described is also thus commented
upon in that poetical curiosity, the “Lyfe of St. Werburgh,” by Henry
Bradshaw, another monk of Chester Abbey, who flourished in sackcloth and
ashes sometime previous to 1500:—
The founder of Chester, as saith Polychronicon,
Was Leon Gauer, a mighty strong giant;
Which builded caves and dungeons many a one,
No goodly buildings, ne proper, ne pleasant.
But King Leil, a Briton sure and valiant,
Was founder of Chester by pleasant building,
And of Caerleil also named by the King.
Among the ancient Britons, the city was known from time immemorial as
Caerlleon Vawr, and Caerlleon ar Dyfyrdwy, and was certainly with them a
city of great importance, long before the advent of the Roman invaders to
these shores. Equally certain is it that our primitive forefathers,
unable to stem the onward current of the victorious Romans, fled in
disorder from the city of Caerlleon (Chester), to the mountain fastnesses
of Wales, and there concentrating themselves, defied for many a long and
eventful century alike the wiles and encroachments of their enemies.
Chester, resigned to the tender mercies of the conquerors, rapidly lost
its first estate;—rising again, however, under the shade of the imperial
eagles, like a phœnix from its ashes, to be the chosen camp and colony of
the Twentieth Legion of Cæsar. Stirring times were these for old
Chester; the rude huts of the Britons, the temples and altars of the
ancient Druids, the mud walls and other defences of her former
possessors, all vanished like a dream, while in their place arose the
proud Prætorium, the pagan temples, the stately columns, the peerless
masonry, the noble statues, the massive Walls, and all the other elements
of civilisation which usually followed in the wake of proud old Rome!
Perhaps of the many Roman settlements in Britain, none have retained to
our own time so many enduring proofs of their energetic rule as Chester.
Surrounded by Walls, which for almost their entire length rest upon Roman
foundations,—nay, which still exhibit to the naked eye of truth and time
the evident impress of their mechanical genius,—we fancy, while we look
thereon, that we see the sturdy warriors pacing to and fro, keeping watch
against the enemy; while, within the city, the soldiers and inhabitants
are plying the pickaxe, trowel, and spade,—here piling stone upon stone
in the erection of a forum, and there planning and building the
tesselated floors, the baths, and the sudatories of domestic life.
Eighteen hundred years have rolled away since Julius Agricola and his
Legion held sway over the city, and yet ever since then, notwithstanding
that _they_ have long lain in the dust, scarce a year has passed without
the encroachments of the builder, or the researches of the antiquary,
bringing to light some long hidden, but valuable relic of this
extraordinary people. Time and space alike forbid us to give anything
like a summary of the records existing, under our very eyes, of Rome’s
sojourn within these walls. Other and more antiquated guide-books have
long ago exhausted and worn out these topics of interest, as well as the
miserable woodcuts that illustrated them; it only remains therefore for
us, in the body of our work, to enumerate a few of the more prominent and
accessible of these remains.
But another epoch was now rapidly dawning upon the world. Rome had
passed the meridian of her splendour, and she who, so short a time
before, was acknowledged mistress of the world, felt the tide of conquest
and prosperity visibly ebbing away. Insurrections abroad, divisions,
tumults, and murders at home, served but to aggravate and complete her
fall. After the departure of the Romans from this island, Chester
appears to have been alternately possessed by the Britons, the Saxons,
and the Danes; by the latter, however, it was held but a very short
period, being restored to the Saxons by the valiant daughter of Alfred
the Great, Ethelfleda, the wife of Ethelred, Prince of Mercia. This lady
is said to have repaired the city and rebuilt the walls in 907, and, as
some affirm, considerably added to their former extent. After her death,
the city again fell into the hands of the British princes, from whom it
was recovered in 924 by King Egbert, whose death almost immediately
followed this event. National affairs were then conducted according to
that
good old-fashioned plan,
That they shall take who have the power,
And they shall keep who can.
From this period to the Conquest, Chester has nothing of a tale to tell;
but on the accession of William the Conqueror, he created his nephew Hugh
Lupus, Earl of Chester, at the same time investing him with supreme
authority throughout the county and city, so that he held as absolute a
regal sway within those limits as the king himself had in his dominions.
For one hundred and sixty years did Hugh Lupus and his successors, the
seven Norman Earls of Chester, exercise their petty sovereignty over the
city and county, until the death of Earl John Scot, in 1237, when Henry
III. took the earldom, with all the powers annexed to it, into his own
hands; and from that period to the present it has been held by the
English Crown. The title of Earl of Chester was conferred by Henry upon
his eldest son, afterwards Edward I. It has ever since been vested in
the reigning monarch’s eldest son, and is now enjoyed by his Royal
Highness, Albert, Prince of Wales, the hopeful heir of our beloved Queen.
“In 1255, the Welsh, under their Prince, Llewellyn, made an irruption
into this neighbourhood, carrying fire and sword to the very gates of the
city. The following year Prince Edward, who had recently been created
Earl of Chester, paid a visit to the city, and received the homage of the
nobles of Cheshire and part of Wales.” The hostile inroads of Llewellyn
remained unrevenged until King Henry, in 1257, summoned his nobility and
bishops to attend with their vassals at Chester, in order to invade the
Principality.
“In 1272, Edward I. ascended the throne, and soon gave indications of his
determination to subject Wales to the English crown. This monarch was at
Chester in 1276 and 1277; in the former year he came for the purpose of
summoning Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, to do him homage; who having
refused to comply, he returned the next year with an army, and marching
from Chester, took Rhuddlan castle, and made it a strong fortress. In
1282, we again find Edward I. in the city, where he resided from the 6th
of June to the 4th of July. The following year, having been victorious
in his expedition against the Welsh, he was at Chester with his Queen,
and attended mass in St. Werburgh’s Church, on which occasion he
presented the Abbey with a cloth of great value. In September, 1284, the
King was at Chester for four days, and again passed through the city in
1294, on his march to Wales, to suppress the rebellion of Madoc.
“In 1312, Edward II. came to Chester to meet Piers de Gaveston, on his
return from Ireland.
“In 1399, Henry of Lancaster, in arms against Richard II., mustered his
troops under the Walls of Chester, whence, on the 19th of August, he
marched for Flint, and returned on the following day with Richard, whom
he lodged in a tower over the outer gateway of the castle, opposite to
Glover’s Stone, from whence he was conveyed prisoner to London.
“In 1459, Henry VI., with Queen Margaret and her son Edward, visited
Chester, and bestowed little silver swans on the Cheshire gentlemen who
espoused her cause.
“On the 13th of July, 1494, Henry VII., with his mother and the Queen,
came to Chester with a great retinue, from whence they proceeded to
Hawarden; the Earl of Derby, and a number of ‘Chester gallants’
attending.
“The summer of the year 1507, was memorable here from the awful
visitation of the ‘sweating sickness,’ which raged for a short time with
great violence. It is recorded that 91 householders were carried off in
three days by this distemper; but it is worthy of remark, that the female
sex were generally exempt from the plague, only four having fallen
victims to the disease. Cats and women have each nine lives! In 1517,
the sweating sickness again proved fatal to many of the inhabitants; and
the city was also infected with the plague, probably to a more serious
extent. It is recorded that ‘many died and others fled out of the city,
insomuch that the streets were full of grass;’ and ‘that for want of
trading the grass did grow a foot high at the Cross, and in other streets
of the city.’ In 1550 the city suffered severely from the sweating
sickness, and to this affliction was added a great scarcity of
provisions; corn selling in Chester at sixteen shillings a bushel. From
the year 1602 to 1605, with few intermissions, the dreadful effects of
the plague were experienced in the city. It is stated to have begun in
the month of September, in the former year, at the house of one Glover,
in St. John’s lane, in whose house alone seven persons died. The
contagion was particularly fatal in 1603 and 1604; 650 persons died in
the former year, and 986 in the latter; at one period 55 died
weekly.—During this dreadful visitation, the fairs of the city were
suspended, the court of exchequer was removed to Tarvin, and the county
assizes were held at Nantwich. The plague had abated in the month of
February 1605.”
From this time to 1642 no event of any great importance appears to have
transpired. In the autumn of that year, however, the Cestrians found
themselves embroiled in the civil war which then broke out in England;
and as this was one of the proudest and most memorable epochs in our
city’s history, a condensed sketch of the part she and her sons played
therein may not be uninteresting.
On the 25th of August, 1642, the commons being then in open rebellion
against his majesty, King Charles hoisted his standard at Nottingham, and
proclaimed war between himself and the parliament. “Three weeks after
this, the king came to Chester, accompanied by a numerous train: the
incorporated companies of the city received him and conducted him to the
Pentice, where he and his suite were entertained. After the banquet,
200_l._ were presented to his majesty, and half that sum to the Prince of
Wales. On the 28th of September, the king proceeded to Wrexham, escorted
by the corporation to the city boundary.
“War being declared, Chester was deemed a place of great importance; and
his majesty sent hither Sir Nicholas Byron, with a commission as
Colonel-General of Cheshire, and Governor of Chester. A levy of 300 men
was ordered by the citizens, independent of the trained bands, and a rate
was made for their maintenance. The outworks and entrenchments were
carried on with such vigour, that in the beginning of the summer, 1643,
the _mud walls_, _mounts_, _bastions_, &c. were all completed, and
several effective batteries planted.”
Upon Thursday, the 19th of July, 1643, Sir William Brereton, general of
the parliamentary forces, made an assault upon the works, but they were
so resolutely defended, that he was beaten off, and forced to retire. On
the 11th of November, the town and castle of Hawarden was surrendered to
Sir William Brereton, who sent a summons to Chester, requiring the
surrender of the city under pain of condign punishment in case of
refusal. Governor Byron sent him for answer, that he was not to be
terrified by words, but bade him “come and win the city, if he would have
it.” The authorities busied themselves in perfecting the defences of the
city: three troops of horse were raised, for the maintenance of which the
citizens assessed themselves according to their abilities, and converted
100_l._ worth of the city plate into coin, some of which pieces, stamped
with the city arms, still exist in the cabinets of numismatists.
On the 13th of February, 1644, a battle was fought near Boughton, in
which the enemy were forced to retire. About 100 of the royalists,
chiefly Chester men, fell in this engagement.
On the 19th of September, the parliamentary forces from Beeston Castle
advanced to Chester, and immediately transmitted a peremptory summons.
Ere an answer could be returned, the enemy made a brisk attack upon the
city, but were repulsed with loss: the city walls now constituted the
only defence of the besieged. After various skirmishes on each side, the
besieging commanders opened a correspondence, which, however, terminated
without leading to any result.
“By the end of February, 1645, the enemy had succeeded in surrounding the
city, and placed garrisons at Hoole, Rowton, Eccleston, Iron-bridge,
Upton, &c. In this position affairs remained until the middle of
September, when the garrison were gladdened by the news that the king was
on his march for the relief of the city. The exultation of the citizens
was beyond all bounds: but there is reason to believe, that in their
excess of joy, measures of prudence were grievously neglected.
“On the 27th of September, his majesty, with his guards, and Lord Gerard,
with the remainder of the horse, marched into the city, amidst the
acclamations of the soldiers and citizens. The condition of the garrison
now presented a promising appearance. Sir Marmaduke Langdale, as
previously arranged, passed the river at Holt, and marching in the
direction of Chester, drew up his forces upon Rowton Heath, about two
miles from the city, where, on the afternoon of the same day, the
decisive battle took place; the parliamentary forces, under Major-General
Poyntz, totally routing the royalists. His majesty, attended by Sir
Francis Gamull, and Alderman Cowper, had the mortification to witness the
rout of his army from the leads of the Phœnix tower. On the following
day the royal fugitive took his departure for Denbigh Castle.”
On the 29th of September, the besiegers effected a breach near the
Newgate, and at night made an assault, but were repulsed. On October
7th, the city was surrounded by their horse, and a violent assault made
in several places. For a long time the conflict was doubtful; at length
the assailants, having gained the top of the Walls, were again beaten
off, thrown down, and killed. From this time the parliamentary commander
despaired of taking the city by assault, and immediately converted the
siege into a close blockade—a high compliment to the gallantry of the
inhabitants of Chester.
“The beginning of 1646 found the garrison in want of the common
necessaries of life, being so reduced as to be compelled to feed upon
horses, dogs, and cats. In this extremity the garrison rejected nine
different summonses, nor, till they received assurances that there was no
hope of succour, did they answer the tenth. The negotiations occupied
six days, when conditions were agreed to—that the garrison should march
out with the honours of war, and that all the ammunition, stores, &c. in
the castle, be delivered up without injury to the besieging army.
“In conformity with these articles, the brave and loyal city of Chester,
which had held out twenty weeks beyond expectation, being reduced by
famine to the utmost extremity, was, upon the 3rd of February, 1646,
surrendered up to the parliamentary forces. For two years, nothing had
been heard but the sound of warlike preparations, and during most of that
time the citizens were inclosed within their Walls, the victims of
starvation and constant apprehension. The incessant drains upon their
property for the maintenance of the garrison, and the support of their
fugitive prince, had levelled the different classes of the community to
one common condition of beggary. The whole suburbs presented an
undistinguishable mass of ruins, while the Walls and edifices within the
city were defaced or battered down by the destructive cannon. In
addition to this, the city lands were all mortgaged, the funds quite
exhausted, the plate melted down, and the churches, particularly St.
John’s, being so long in possession of the enemy, greatly damaged.”
From this eventful period down to the present day, saving a few royal
visits, no circumstance has occurred of sufficient import to deserve
especial mention here. So now, kind reader, having in our own way, and
as briefly and modestly as possible, told our historic tale, we will
close the present chapter, and in our next be ready to accompany you in
your wanderings about the city.