Chester Castle

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Chester Castle

Cheshire


Chester Castle
Location
Grid reference: SJ40386576
Location: 53°11’7"N, 2°53’32"W
City: Chester
History
Built 1070, 1822
Information
Owned by: English Heritage
Website: Chester Castle Agricola Tower and Castle Walls

Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, the county town of Cheshire. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls, standing on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the mediæval castle together with the neoclassical buildings designed by Thomas Harrison which were built between 1788 and 1813. Parts of the neoclassical buildings are used today as Crown Courts and as the Cheshire Military Museum.

History

The castle was built in 1070 by Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester, also known as Hugh Lupus. It is possible that it was built on the site of an earlier Saxon fortification but this has not been confirmed.[1]

The original structure would have been a motte-and-bailey castle with a wooden tower. In the 12th century the wooden tower was replaced by a square stone tower, the Flag Tower. During the same century the stone gateway to the inner bailey was built: this is now known as the Agricola Tower and on its first floor is the chapel of St Mary de Castro. The chapel contains items of Norman architecture.[2] In the 13th century, during the reign of Henry III, the walls of an outer bailey were built, the gateway in the Agricola Tower was blocked up and residential accommodation, including a Great Hall, was built along the south wall of the inner bailey. Later in the century, during the reign of Edward I, a new gateway to the outer bailey was built. This was flanked by two half-drum towers and had a drawbridge over a moat 26 feet deep. Further additions to the castle at this time included individual chambers for the King and Queen, a new chapel and stables.[1]

The Norman chapel

Prominent people held as prisoners in the crypt of the Agricola Tower have included Richard II and Eleanor Cobham, wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Andrew de Moray, a Scottish commender at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.[3] During the Wars of the Roses, Yorkist John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu was captured and imprisoned at the castle by Lancastrians following the Battle of Blore Heath, near the town of Market Drayton, Shropshire, in 1459. He was released from captivity following the Yorkist victory at Northampton in 1460.[4] Outside the outer bailey gate was an area known as the Gloverstone where criminals waiting for execution were handed over to the city authorities. The Great Hall was rebuilt in the late 1570s.

During the Civil War, Chester was held by the Royalists. The castle was assaulted by Parliamentary forces in July 1643, and in January and April 1645.[5] Together with the rest of the city, it was besieged between September 1645 and February 1646. After the war, the castle was used as a prison, a court and a tax office.[1] In 1687 James II attended mass in the chapel of St Mary de Castro.[3]

In 1696 Chester mint was established and was managed by Edmund Halley in a building adjacent to the Half Moon tower.[1] During the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion a gun emplacement was built on the wall overlooking the river.

Chester Castle in 1747 (Buck Brothers)

By the later part of the 18th century much of the fabric of the castle had deteriorated and John Howard, the prison reformer, was particularly critical of the conditions in the prison. Thomas Harrison was commissioned to design a new prison. This was completed in 1792 and praised as one of the best constructed prisons in the country. Harrison then went on to rebuild the mediæval Shire Hall in neoclassical style. He also built two new wings, one to act as barracks, the other as an armoury, and designed a massive new entrance to the castle site, styled the Propylaeum. The buildings, which were all in neoclassical style, were built between 1788 and 1822. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner comments that Harrison's work constitutes "one of the most powerful monuments of the Greek Revival in the whole of England".[6]

In 1925, after being used for 200 years as a warehouse and ammunition store, the crypt and chapel in the Agricola Tower were reconsecrated by the Bishop of Chester for the use of the Cheshire Regiment. In 1939 the chapel was refurnished.[3]

Present day

Harrison's Propyleum

The complex is entered from Grosvenor Road through the Propylaeum, a Grade I listed building. This consists of a massive entablature supported on widely spaced (areostyle) Doric columns, flanked by temple-like lodges.[7] Directly ahead is the former Shire Hall (also listed Grade I) which now houses the Crown Courts. Its façade has 19 bays, the central seven bays of which project forward and constitute a Doric portico.[8] To the left is the former barracks block which is now the home of the Cheshire Military Museum. To the right is the block which was originally an armoury and later an officers' mess. Both blocks are in neoclassical style and are listed Grade I.[9][10]

Further to the right are the remains of the Norman castle. The Agricola Tower is a Grade I listed building. It is built in sandstone ashlar with a metal roof in three storeys. The ground floor has a blocked gateway and to the right of the gateway is a slightly projecting stair turret. Internally, the ground floor consists of a crypt, and the first floor contains the chapel of St Mary Castro.[11] The Agricola Tower is also a scheduled monument.[12][13] The chapel is still consecrated as the regimental chapel of the Cheshire Regiment. Its ceiling is covered with frescos dating from the early part of the 13th century which depict the Visitation and miracles performed by the Virgin Mary, which were revealed during conservation work in the 1990s.

The Agricola Tower

To the south and the west, the curtain walls, which include the Halfmoon Tower, the Flag Tower and the gun emplacement, are listed Grade I.[14] Other walls within the castle complex are listed Grade II. These are the retaining walls and the railing of the forecourt designed by Thomas Harrison,[15] and two other areas of the mediæval curtain walls.[16][17]

In the castle courtyard is a statue of Queen Victoria dated 1903 by F W Pomeroy.[18] The inner bailey is managed by the council on behalf of English Heritage.

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Chester Castle)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chester Castle on ‘Castles of Wales’
  2. ↑ St Mary de Castro, Chester - Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Richards 1947, p. 102.
  4. ↑ Laughton, Jane (2008). Life in a late mediæval city: Chester, 1275–1520. Windgather Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-905119-23-3. 
  5. ↑ Phillips, A. D. M.; Phillips, C. B. (2002), A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire, Chester: Cheshire County Council, p. 37, ISBN 0-904532-46-1 
  6. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Cheshire, 1971; 2011 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09588-3
  7. ↑ National Heritage List 1271822: Propylaea, Chester Castle
  8. ↑ National Heritage List 1271823: Assize Courts Block, Chester Castle
  9. ↑ National Heritage List 1271824: A Block, Chester Castle
  10. ↑ National Heritage List 1245520: B Block, Chester Castle
  11. ↑ National Heritage List 1271825: Agricola Tower, Chester Castle
  12. ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 1100771 – Agricola Tower
  13. ↑ National Heritage List 1006773: Chester Castle (part)
  14. ↑ National Heritage List 1245537: Curtain wall to west and south west of inner bailey, Chester Castle
  15. ↑ National Heritage List 1245518: Retaining walls and railing of semi circular forecourt, Chester Castle
  16. ↑ National Heritage List 1271821: Curtain wall to east of inner bailey, Chester Castle
  17. ↑ National Heritage List 1245539: Curtain wall to south of inner bailey, Chester Castle
  18. ↑ Pevsner & Hubbard 2003, p. 158.
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