Chester city walls

Original Roman walls along the Chester Canal	Walls repaired after the Civil War
Georgian promenade walls near Bridgegate	The Victorian Eastgate Clock

Chester city walls surround the historic heart of the city of Chester, the county town of Cheshire. The walls comprise the most complete Roman and mediæval defensive town wall system in Britain.

The first walls about the city were begun by the Romans when they established the fortress of Deva Victrix between AD70 and 80, and if following the usual pattern the defence would have consisted of a rampart of earth and turf surmounted by a wooden palisade. From about 100 AD, walls were built using sandstone, but were not completed until over a hundred years later.

Little is known of the walls after the Romans left Britain. In 907, Æthelflæd of Mercia refounded Chester as a burgh, which would have required the creation of walls or ramparts. After the Norman conquest, the walls were extended to the west and the south to form a complete circuit of the mediæval city. The circuit was probably complete by the middle of the twelfth century.

Maintenance of the structure of the walls was an ongoing concern for the city. They were further fortified before the Civil War, and were damaged during the war. Following this they ceased to have a defensive purpose, and were developed for leisure and recreation.

The walls are now a major tourist attraction, and form an almost complete circuit of the former mediæval city, with a total walkway length of 1.8 miles. The duty of upkeep and repair of the walls is continuous.

History

Deva Victrix

Roman-era sandstone in the north-west section

In about 74 or 75 AD the Roman legion Legio II Adiutrix established a fortress in Chester. The fortress was initially defended by an earth rampart surmounted by a wooden palisade and surrounded by a ditch with a sharp V-shaped profile. It is likely that the rampart was about ten feet high, on a base of about twenty feet. The earth for the rampart was obtained from digging the ditch. It was set on a base of logs and held together by branches and brushwood. At intervals of about 175 yards along the ramparts were wooden towers with a square base of about 15 feet; they were probably about 25 feet high. On each of the four sides was a main gate with timber towers. The gates on the north and east sides stood on the present sites of Northgate and Eastgate. From about AD 90 Chester was occupied by Legio XX Valeria Victrix, which started a programme of rebuilding, including the improvement of the walls. Starting in about AD 100 the earth walls were reconstructed using sandstone. A wall of stone was added to the earth rampart. This consisted of large square blocks of stone built on a chamfered plinth up to a walkway about 16 feet above the base. It was surmounted by an elaborately carved cornice, and a parapet topped by capstones. The gates and towers were also rebuilt in stone. It is thought that the north gate was a single arch, while the others had twin portals. The east gate formed the main entry to the fortress, and was particularly impressive, possibly with three storeys. The stone was quarried locally from the immediate area of the fortress. Although started in about the year 100, the rebuilding of the walls was abandoned in the early part of the 2nd century, perhaps with the walls incomplete, and was not finished until over 100 years later. The walls continued to be maintained throughout the Roman occupation, with major repairs undertaken during the 4th century.

Mediæval city

The south-east section by Barnaby's Tower

Nothing is known about the condition of the walls between the end of the Roman occupation in the late 4th century and the refounding of Chester by Æthelflæd as a burgh in 907, during the reconquest of England from the Danes. Parts of the Roman walls were still present, as they continue to stand today. Æthelflæd and her successors certainly repaired the northern and eastern sections of the Roman walls, and at some time Roman stones, including tombstones, were used in repairs, but it uncertain whether this was during this period or later. There is evidence, including the discovery of a Saxon U-shaped ditch, that the wall was extended from the south-east corner of the Roman wall to the river, forming an L-shaped defence, but whether this would have been a stone or an earth defence is unknown. There is a reference to repairing the walls in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Following the Norman conquest, the army of William the Conqueror arrived in Chester in 1069–70, and the king ordered that a castle be built, which was constructed outside the site of the Roman fortress, to the southwest in an elevated position overlooking the River Dee. This necessitated the extension of the walls to the west and south to incorporate the castle, leading to the circuit of the walls seen today. Three new gates were built, the Watergate in the west wall, and the Shipgate and Bridgegate. The latter two gates were certainly built by the 1120s, and it is thought that the mediæval circuit of the walls was complete by 1162. They then consisted of the curtain wall itself, gates, towers and a ditch. The Anglo-Saxon ditch has been filled in, and the mediæval ditches were dug further from the walls. The earlier ditch had been shallow, probably no more than 3.3 ft (1.0 m) deep. However, following a siege of Chester Castle in 1265, a larger ditch was dug, this one being over six feet deep.

The finance required for the upkeep of the walls was mainly by a series of murages granted by the king, duties levied on merchandise passing into and out of the city. The main gates were under the control of hereditary sergeants who collected tolls and organised watches on the walls.

To the Civil War

During the 15th century the granting of murages was delegated to the city authorities, but keeping up with the necessary repairs was a continuing problem. Breaches occurred in 1569, 1608 and 1629, and in both 1589 and in 1641 the walls were described as being "ruinous".

In the expectation of the coming Civil War, repairs were carried out in the early 1640s, and further fortifications were added to the walls and in the outer suburbs. It was at this time that Morgan's Mount was built on the northern section, to serve as a gun platform.

The walls were heavily damaged during the siege of the city by Parliamentarian forces in 1645, this included two major breaches.

The city at peace

The Wishing steps in the south east corner of the city walls

After the end of the Civil War, the walls ceased to have any military or defensive function. They were however an ornament to the city and increasingly the walls became used for recreational purposes. In 1707 the City Assembly made a grant of £1,000 to repair and re-flag the walls to make a walkway with an unfortified parapet. Notable people walking the walls in the early 18th century included John Wesley and Samuel Johnson.

By this time the main gates were too narrow for the increasing traffic, so they were all rebuilt with wider arches. The gates had also prevented an unobstructed perambulation of the walls, and the opportunity was taken to carry the walkway over the new gates. Eastgate was replaced in 1768, Bridgegate in 1781, and Watergate in 1788. Other measures were taken to improve the accessibility for walkers; these included the building of Recorder's Steps in 1720 on the southern part of the walls, and the Wishing Steps in 1785 on a steeply inclined section to the east of the Recorder's Steps. Between 1808 and 1810 Northgate was rebuilt. This gate had contained the city gaol, and a new gaol was built in the south of the city. The gaol yard extended southwards towards the river and this necessitated removing Shipgate, thus creating a permanent breach in the wall.

Improvements in transport in the 19th and 20th centuries have resulted in further alterations to the walls. Until the early 19th century the only bridge over the Dee had been the Old Dee Bridge immediately to the south of Bridgegate. In the 1820s Grosvenor Bridge was built, passing through the walls at the south-west corner.

In 1846 the Chester and Holyhead Railway was built, cutting the walls and passing through arches under the north-east corner. By the 1930s road traffic had increased and was causing severe congestion in the middle of the city, particularly at Chester Cross. A new road was created to the south of the centre of the city, breaching the east wall to the west of the Amphitheatre. Newgate was built to allow the traffic to pass and to take the walkway over the road; this opened in 1938.

After the Second World War, traffic increased further and in the 1960s the Inner Ring Road was built to take traffic from Grosvenor Bridge to the west of the city centre. Where it breached the north wall, a concrete footbridge, named St Martin's Gate, was built and opened in 1966.

The walls today

Morgan's Mount on the northern section

Chester city walls are a major tourist attraction for visitors to the city. They form an almost complete circuit of the city as it was in the Middle Ages, and measure almost two miles in circumference. The walk is approximately rectangular in plan, on a continuous elevated walkway, apart from a short section on the south of the city.

The wall walk incorporates mediæval structures, including Bonewaldesthorne's Tower, attached to the Water Tower at the northwest corner, Pemberton's Parlour and Morgan's Mount on the north section of the walls, Phoenix Tower, Thimbleby's Tower and Barnaby's Tower on the east section of the walls, and the base of a drum tower on the south section. It crosses roads on the four major mediæval gates to the city, Northgate, Eastgate, Bridgegate, and Watergate, and more modern roads on Newgate and St Martin's Gate. The walk also crosses Kaleyard Gate on the eastern section of the walls, and passes the Recorder's Steps on the south section.

The walls comprise the most complete Roman and mediæval defensive town wall system in Britain. The entire circuit of the walls, together with the towers and gates, is recognised as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Almost every section of the walls is individually designated as a Grade I listed structure. (the only exception being the section of the walls between Bridgegate and the County Hall, which is listed at Grade II*.)

Upkeep and repair of the walls continue to cause problems. In 2008 a section of the wall collapsed and had to be repaired. It was reopened in 2010.

There have been several fatal accidents of people falling from the walls.

In 2011, steps on the section of wall between Morgan's Mount and Northgate Bridge were found to be moving and had to be propped up. In April 2016, the section was closed for six months of repairs.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Chester city walls)

• 'Chester: a Virtual Stroll Around the Walls'

References

• Ward, Simon: 'Chester: A History' (Phillimore, 2009) ISBN 978-1-86077-499-7
• Morris, Richard and Hoverd, K: 'The Buildings of Chester' (Alan Sutton, 1993) ISBN 0-7509-0255-8