Chester A Historical and Topographical Account of the City by Edmund H. New
Illustrated by Edmund H. New Published London Methuen and Co. 1903

THERE may possibly have been a British earthwork on the hill where the castle now stands. It was, however, we may say, certainly not included within the limits of the Roman city. The later history of the spot, so far as it is known, repeats the story of many other fortresses in this island The Saxon lord may have 'wrought his burh' there, or he may not; but the Norman earl, when he took possession of the land, with pick and spade heaped up his mound, and added to it a base-court, or perhaps more than one such enclosure. His earthen keep and the walls of the courts, its baileys, he further strengthened with palisades of wattle or stockades of wood. Later on, if the fortress continued to play its part, as the years went by, stone buildings were added and a keep erected on the mound. To this may afterwards have been added outer walls, enclosing one or more baileys, containing establishments of various kinds connected with the fortress, until the complicated arrangements of one of the larger castles were arrived at. Thus the site of the buhr, at least in some cases, became that of the castle; and in the process of the later evolution the position of the original earthen mound has often become difficult, if not impossible, to find. Sometimes it is quite obvious, as at Warwick and Tamworth, at both of which places the mound is distinct to this day; but at other places, such as Kenilworth, though there is practically no doubt that there was once a mound, it is difficult, if not impossible, to say which of the heaps of earth may be the actual elevation.

Now, at Chester, we know that Aethelflaed, that energetic defender of Mercia, re-founded the city, which had been void for one hundred and fifty years, and no doubt at the same time wrought there a buhr, as she did at so many other places, including - to mention only those in the neighbourhood ,Bridgnorth, Stafford, Eddisbury, Cherbury, and Runcorn. The castle was separated from the city itself by a shallow valley, front which rose the eminence on which the building was seated, an eminence which had an abrupt face looking towards the river. Mr. Cox, front whose erudite paper on Chester Castle much of what follows has been extracted, thinks that it is fairly certain that the inner or upper bailey of the castle, represented by the older parts of the existing structure, still stands upon the earthworks thrown up by Aethelflaed and approximately follows their lines, and that the great mound stood on the south-western side, 'where it is still traceable, and was more clearly visible before the present buildings were erected, its site having always been distinguished by the flag-tower; this distinction, he thinks, having probably continued to mark it as the site of the commander's post since its construction in the year 907. The fortress was almost certainly additionally fortified with a wooden stockade, and the later Norman edifice, founded, according to Ordericus, in 1069, must have been at least partly thus provided, and so have continued for a number of years. In the Public Record Office there is a letter which is in part given in the Cheshire Sheaf, and may, thinks the transcriber, be dated, from internal evidence, about the year 1260. This letter, which is in Latin. contains directions about the fortification of Chester and Disarth Castles, and ordains as follows

concerning the former: ' Mandamus quod ballium circa castrum nostrum Cestriae, quod clausum fuit palo, amoto palo illo, claudi faciatis calce et petra.' Or to English a larger part of the same document 'Henry, In' the grace of God, King of England, etc. etc., to his beloved and faithful .J.de Grey, his Justiciary of Chester. We command you that cause to be removed the wooden fence of the bailey around our castle of Chester. and that you cause the said bailey to be enclosed with a stone wall. And that in like manner you re-edify the bailey around our castle of Dissard, wherever it may be necessary. And the sums you shall expend on the same, being certified by the view and testimony of lawful men, shall be allowed to you at our Exchequer.'

That the entire Norman building was not so constructed. but that there was a Stone keep, seems to he proved by Mr. Cox's discovery that the lower story of the flag-tower, as it still exists, is probably the much-hidden basement of the Norman keep. It is divided in the basement into two vaulted cellars, this being a Norman characteristic.

Caesar's Tower

If this be the case, the contention that the so-called Caesar's Tower was the keep falls to the ground, and indeed one must agree that this contention has been demolished by Mr. Cox's arguments. The plan of the inner bailey of Chester Castle belongs to the improved architecture of the thirteenth century. In castles of this date the keep was no longer the heart of the whole fortress, its kernel and centre. A courtyard was erected with gates and flanking towers, within which were built the hall, the chapel, and the other apartments, all of which had formerly found their place in the keep. Sometimes this enclosure, with its contained buildings, constituted the entire castle, but generally there was a second external line of defence, formed of walls, with entrenchments and earthworks. Of this period, says Mr. Cox, is Chester Castle in its upper bailey. Canon Morris notes that in the Close Rolls of 35 Henry iii. (1251) is contained an order from the king to his justiciary, Alan de Zouche, directing the wall of the outer ward and the new hall in the castle, which are begun, to be finished. Mr. Cox thus describes the castle as existing at the period in question. The inner bailey of Chester Castle was surrounded by a lofty wall, partly on the ridge of the earlier entrenchments, and partly revetting or facing them. The enclosure, though conforming generally to the oval form of the old work, was polygonal, and was entered by a gatehouse flanked by two half-round towers ; a third tower, round to the front and square in rear, flanked the ditch on the west and north-west; this still remains, but much altered. The east side stood high upon a rock, and required no flanking; and on this side, which was least exposed to attack, stood the hall with its porch, and the solar or parlour, with chamber above, at the east end, at right angles with it. The main feature of the north-west face consisted of two square towers, rising to some height above the curtain walls, but having no projection beyond the line of the curtain for flanking purposes; a third square tower, the keep, to the west, occupied the mound, and formed the flag-tower. A little to the south was a square wall bastion, which, so far as most plans and drawings go, is shown open at the gorge. But the requirements of the defence, also some slight remains of foundations, and one drawing in Grose's Antiquites, indicate that it was originally closed, and corresponded in plan with the square tower flanking the entrance gateway. Near it a sallyport opened from a flight of steps at the base of the wall, and was defended by a machicolated bartizan carried on corbels above it. The gate house had a width of fifty feet. The square tower next to it (westward) had its inner face smaller than the others; its flanks inclined inwards to meet this, the larger faces measured thirty feet, the round-fronted tower was twenty-five by fifty feet, and the keep on the mound thirty feet square The upper story of the keep was reached by steps on each side (apparently later constructions than the tower) rising from the curtain wall, and defended by a parapet corbelled outwards with stepped merlons. The tower cast of the gateway is the present Caesar's Tower, containing the chapel, a crypt below it, and a vaulted room above, The purpose of the three square towers was not to flank the curtain wall, but to command from their summits the passage of the river and the strip of land between the river and the city wall. This, Mr. Cox thinks, constituted the entire of the first mediaeval or military castle ; in fact, he points out that the buildings of the outer or lower bailey mask, to a great extent, the command that the older towers were intended to cover, separating them from the control of the open land towards the north; and he finds a confirmation of this theory in the earlier and later views which exist of this part of the building. The square towers on the enclosure ;wall, with the exception of Caesar's Tower, appear to have been originally all open in the gorge or rear, and adapted solely for defensive use, not for occupation by troops or stores; if they were closed at all, it was probably with wood. At a later date, the gorges were closed with masonry, and the towers made fit for occupation. This, he says, is shown by the fact that the buttresses on the exterior of the wall are all of the pilaster type, prevalent in the early first pointed style; those in the rear are of later character (probably fifteenth-century type), suggesting that they were added work.

The buttresses of Caesar's Tower are of the pilaster form on each face. Thus, these towers seem to have had only a defensive use, of which the building of the outer bailey at a later date partially deprived them. The hall, he proceeds, of this earlier castle was towards the east, furthest withdrawn from points of attack; its size was thirty-three by sixty-six feet; it had a porch at the north end, communicating also with the chapel in Caesar's Tower, and having a chamber over it set transversely to the hall, adjoining which was a well. At its south end a building of the same dimensions contained the solar, or parlour, and the chamber; and from these, at the south angle, a staircase led down to the bottom of the wall into the ditch. Below this hall and chambers there appear to have been . The substructure , with narrow lights opening in the wall , Castle probably cellars or crypts for storage . Caesar's Tower still in existence, has, as Mr. Cox points out, none of the internal features of a keep, being devoid of any fireplace or well, and possessing no rooms spacious enough to serve as habitations for the earl or his retinue. Its ground story is a finely groined crypt to the chapel, and is very little below the level of the present castle-yard; the groining forms a kind of sexpartite vault, with bold, plainly chamfered ribs springing from short, half-octagon wall shafts with plain capitals, set upon a high plinth. This room is entered by a door with a plain soffit , not divided into orders, and with a simple roll-moulding on the outer edge; a single small square window lights it ; and on the right hand, a wide newel-staircase, occupying the angle turret, leads to the two upper rooms.

The Chapel

On the middle story is the chapel, a lofty room divided into three bays of quadripartite vaulting, carried on detached round vaulting shafts at the sides, with caps and a single roll-moulding at the angles ; the ribs of the acutely pointed vaulting cells are very massive and finely moulded, with three filleted rolls and an intermediate angular member; there is no longitudinal rib . At each springing the vaulting shaft is circular, with a floriated and voluted capital anti a moulded base, characteristic of the first pointed style, and rather early in the period but these and the mouldings mark the date unmistakably as being within the fully developed style that prevailed in the reign of Henry III. The door is at the right side in the first bay ; and at what should be the west end the window has a lancet arch, which in one of the ancient drawings shows as two trefoiled lights ; it is now built into a square, as is the window over the altar. This structure stood in a recess in the thickness of the wall, with a low segmental pointed arch over it. The Easter Sepulchre probably exists in the shape of a similar recess on the left, and on the right there is a plain aumbry. The interior surface of the walls of the chapel was painted in frescoes on a coat of plaster, hut these are now almost indistinguishable owing to the whitewash which has defaced them. According to an ms. account of the chapel of the seventeenth century, there were a number of coats of arms amongst its decorations. Of these, some do not appear to have been identified; the others, according to a writer in the Cheshire Sheaf belonged to families most probably connected with judges, chamberlains, or other chief officers of the Palatinate Court or of the castle. One of them displays the arms of Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Coventry, Lichfleld, and Chester. It was in this chapel that James II. heard Mass on the visit to Chester, as recorded in an earlier chapter. This is probably the last time on which this edifice has been used for its original purpose.

The Outer - Bailey

A ditch, apparently over one hundred feet wide, separated the outer from the inner bailey - the former having, it would seem, been erected in the reign of Edward I .The gate house was on the north-east, and was protected by two massive and lofty half-drum towers. On the east of the tower was a court, where the kitchen and other buildings associated with it found a place: and still further south was the ' splendid and spacious shire-hall, the glory of the castle, whose loss is poorly compensated by the great and costly modern building reared by Harrison on its site, notwithstanding its majesty of classical proportion and detail,' to quote Mr. Cox's words. From his account of this building the following details are extracted The length of the hall was ninety-nine feet. and its extreme breadth was said to be forty-five feet, but the plan shows only a breadth of about forty to forty-two feet; it was of great height, and is described as resembling Westminster Hall. 'Height very awful,' says Pennant, who adds other details concerning this chamber. At its western base were two projecting bays, one at each end. That towards the north was the porch, which had its doorway turned towards the south, so that it might face away from any missiles thrown over the north or west curtain wall. From this porch the visitor would pass behind the screens, which almost always occupied the lower end of the hall. Behind this screen would be the entrances or points of communication with the buttery, and above it a minstrel gallery. At the far end from the screen would be the dais. It is most probable, thinks the writer from whom quotation has so frequently been made in this section, that Edward I. constructed the whole of the outer bailey as an addition to the original castle. The fact that this monarch was an active organiser of municipal and local legislative institutions also makes it probable that these great buildings, designed from the first for the use of the shire courts, and the exchequer or Parliament chamber of the County Palatine, were provided by him for their accommodation. There seems to have been a central hearth, judging from the fact that pictures of the hall show a very large louvre in the centre of the roof. From Pennant's description, the roof at his period seems to have been of the hammer-beam type; but this was not the original covering of the hall, which was, in all probability, in part supported by oak pillars, like the Guildhall at York. This method of carrying a roof was superseded by the hammer-beam plan, by which roofs of wide span could be supported without the aid of pillars. The exchequer court stood across the south end of the shire-hall, its two stories not, however, reaching the height of its sister edifice.

The Court

The upper chamber was fitted for the purposes of the court itself. It was arranged somewhat after the manner of a chapter-house, and had ten canopied and sculptured stalls -one for the earl, one for the abbot, and four on each side for the barons. External to the outer bailey was a wide ditch, affording space for a garden, claimed in 1524 with the custody of the gates of the Dee Bridge by George, Earl of Shrewsbury. Canon Morris, quoting from a contemporary document, gives an account of how the produce of the garden was disposed of between gardener and earl. The gardener claimed all the fruit of the best tree in the garden, called the 'Restyng Tree,' as well as the fruit remaining on the other trees after the first shaking, which was the property of the earl. In return for the fruit, thus described, the gardener was bound to find vegetables for the earl during his stay at the castle from Michaelmas to Lent, and leeks during the Lenten fast,

The description of the castle may he concluded by some of the remarks made about it in the Vale Royal, written late in Elizabeth's reign : -

' Upon the south side of the city, near unto the said water of Dee, and upon a high bank or rock of stone, is mounted a strong and stately castle, round in form; the base-court likewise enclosed with a circular wall. which to this day retaineth one testimony of the Romans' magnificence, having therein a fair and ancient square tower; which, by testimony of all writers I have hitherto met withal, beareth the name of Julius Caesar's Tower.' After this the rooms in the castle are enumerated, amongst which it is noted that ' within the precincts of which castle is also the kings prison for the county of Chester, with the office of prothonotary.' Further, it is added that there is 'a fair draw-well of water in the middest of the court, divers sweet and dainty orchards and gardens, besides much of the ancient buildings, for want of care, fallen to ruin and decay.'

The Prison

Mention of the prison reminds one of the many prisoners of importance who have been confined within its walls, it has already been stated that it was used for the soldiers captured in the 'Fifteen' and the 'Forty-Five,' and Canon Morris enumerates the following notable persons who have also been prisoners here:

David, brother of Prince Llewelyn; King Richard II. and Janico d'Artois, his trusty adherent; Eleanor Cobham, good Duke Humphrey's Duchess, for whose keep the revenues of the mill were employed; Richard Oldon, Abbot of St. Werburgh's and Bishop of Sodor; and later, in connection with the dissolution of the monasteries, the Abbot of Norton. Randall Brereton, baron of the exchequer at Chester, and John Hall, merchant of Chester, who were seized by Sir Piers Dutton for complicity with the ' Pilgrimage of Grace.' In the times of William III it was employed as a prison for captives from Ireland, and sums for the keep of' these unhappy persons are contained in a List of payments, made out of the Secret Service Monev of William III., which is preserved in the Bodleian Library. If the digression may be pardoned, it may here be pointed out that the fact that Chester was for so many years the main port for Dublin, and thus for the central parts of Ireland. and that it so remained until Liverpool, and still more Holyhead, drove it from its position, accounts for the large amount of connection of various kinds between the County Palatine and the capital of the sister isle.Attention has already been called to the fact that Chester was the port of departure for soldiers going to the Irish war and a place for the reception of Irish prisoners, and another curious fact may be cited before this matter is left. There is still extant a list of the students in attendance on the courses at Trinity College, Dublin, during the Provostship of Temple, who was appointed to that post in 1609. In this list are included seventy-eight Irish students, twelve strangers of Derbyshire, and eight strangers of Cheshire. What was the special nexus with the first-named county is not clear, but it is easy to understand why Cheshire students should have crossed the water to the Elizabethan University. No mention of strangers from any other part of England, or indeed from any other part of the kingdom, appears in the list referred to. The castle as it now stands is separated from the road by a classic colonnade commenced in 1797, when amidst great festivities the first of the columns of the portico was erected.

According to the Chester Chronicle of the period, ' The column having been previously brought to its situation, and all the machinery prepared, several coins of his present Majesty, in a small urn of Wedgewood's ware, enclosed in another of lead, were deposited in a cavity of the plinth, over which was placed a brass plate with a suitable inscription. This being done, the machinery immediately began to work, the hand playing God save the King," and in about twenty minutes the column was raised ; upon which the Volunteers fired three excellent vollies, the field pieces firing likewise three rounds, and the cannon upon the battery ; together with three cheers from the whole of the corps, workmen, etc. These Columns are of excellent stone, of a good colour, and were brought from Manley, about eight miles from Chester, upon a carriage with six wheels built on purpose, drawn by sixteen horses, and when in the rough weighed from fifteen to sixteen tons each. They are three feet six inches in diameter, and without the capitals, measure twenty-two feet six inches long, being considerably larger than those in front of the New College at Edinburgh. There will be twelve of these columns in the portico in two rows, of the Doric order, without bases, and twelve more likewise, of one stone, something smaller, of the Ionic order, forming a colonnade round the semicircular part of the inside of the hail. This building, when complete, it is presumed, will be one of the most magnificent edifices of the kind in the kingdom; and from the manner in which it is internally contrived for the convenience of the court and audience, it is hoped, too, it will both for seeing and hearing be one of the most useful. It has the same disposition within as, but larger than, the new ball nearly finished in the Gothic style at Lancaster by the same architect. A great portion of the hall within, and the portico, will be completely finished with hewn stone of the same quality as the column; and there is no doubt but that the execution of this massy piece of masonry will do equal credit to the undertakers as, from the models and present appearance, the gaol and county hall promise to do to the architect.'

The portico seems to have taken a long time to complete, for in 1813 there is another newspaper entry narrating the erection of a further column.

'On Thursday last one of the columns belonging to the superb entrance gate to Chester Castle yard was reared upon its plinth. The Denbigh Militia attended upon this occasion, and after the column was reared, fired three excellent vollies. Their Colonel, Sir W.W. Wynn, after depositing, in a small circular cavity cut in the plinth, several coins of the present reign, placed over them a brass plate bearing the following inscription : - " Under this column, erected August 26th, 1813, in the presence of the Royal Denbighshire Militia, Sir Watkin W.Wynn, Colonel of the said regiment, placed this plate to record the signal victory gained over the French by Field-Marshal Lord Wellington, near Vittoria, in Spain, June the 21st, 1813, and 2nd of the Regency of H.R.H. Geo., Prince of \Vales." Round this plate, upon the stone plinth, was cut the following memorial of the last triumph of the Marquis of Wellington :-" Victory of the Pyrenees, gained by Lord Wellington, July 30th, 1813."'

Gloverstone
Before leaving the subject of the castle, it may be appropriate to say something about the Gloverstone and the district which took its name from it, since both were in this neighbourhood. The subject has been fully dealt with by the late Mr. Shrubsole in a paper printed in the Journal of the Chester Archaeological and Historic Society, from which the following notes are extracted. The Gloverstone itself, which has disappeared and was very likely rolled into the ditch of the old castle, since tradition says that it was buried, was probably a large smooth boulder, placed at an angle of the street in order to secure the footpath from traffic. Its name was derived from the purpose to which it was secondarily put, for it was used by the freemen glovers, who lived hereabouts, to scrape and otherwise prepare skins for their trade. The washing was conveniently performed in the river, easily approached by an opening in the wall at the foot of St. Mary's Hill. lit was also a boundary stone, for on its east and south side the township extended no further east than this point, and on the west it ran in a direct line to the Nuns' Gardens. The township of Gloverstone itself was a piece of land separating the castle from the city, and lying between the fortress and the city wall at White Friars. This plot was claimed as the appurtenance of the castle. At first, no doubt, it was unoccupied and served as a kind of parade-ground for mustering and drilling soldiers, purposes for which there was scant accommodation within the walls. Thus it formed a part of the liberties of the castle. Here, says Mr. Shrubsole, minor or trade offenders might dwell under the aegis of the castle, and he adds that whatever may have been the nature of the offence committed by the refugees, it came in time to be recognised as the home for those oppressed by the rigid laws and customs under which trade was then pursued, and as a place where in later times the leave-lookers of the city could not interfere with trade or traders, or the mayor or corporation assert any jurisdiction. It became, in his opinion, not so much a residence for the viciously disposed as for the unfortunate victims of oppressive laws. Possibly there may at one time have been a 'Jewry' at this place. At a time too when the trades formed themselves into guilds for their own protection and for the purposes of keeping out strangers, Gloverstone may have been a place to which offenders against trade rules were banished. The site of the township was that of the later St. Bridget's Church taken down in 1892, for in 1824 Batenham writes: 'It has recently been suggested to remove St. Bridget's Church to a more eligible situation. In this event it is proposed to rebuild the church on the place called Gloverstone, where there would he a spacious burying ground.' He adds that this township was 'a place where freemen now exercised their respective callings unmolested,' but that 'the greater part of the houses are now taken down to make room for projected improvements.' In 1666, when there was fear of an invasion of the country by the Dutch forces, a meeting was summoned to concert measures of defence, and this meeting was to take place at Gloverstone. A letter was sent by the Lords-Lieutenant of the County to the authorities of the various Hand reds of Cheshire, which runs

' To all and evrie the Lords, bar'tts, K'ts, Esq'rs,
and Gent' within Edesbury.
'GENTLEMEN, - There being great reason to doubt that there are preparations made by the Enemies of this kingdome towards an Invasion, wee cannot omitt to give you Notice thereof, you being equally concerned with vs in such a danger. And further to Informe you that wee have thought fitt to Secure this County in the best manner wee can: ffor w'ch purpose wee have appointed a meeting at Glover Stone vpon Tuesday, the 17th of this Instant July, by tenn of the clock in the aforenoone: Att w'ch tyme and place wee doe earnestly desire you to meet vs, being assured of yo'r Cherefull Concurrence and assistance in every perticuler relating to his Ma'ties service.
'In this Confidence wee remaine Gent', (Your) Aff''tt freinds,

DERBY.
R. CHOLMONDELEY.
'NORTHWICH, July 11th, 1666.'Phi. EGERTON.

So that once more the ancient place of assembly of troops was used as the place for holding a gathering called together to take measures to repel invasion. Canon Morris points out that it was at the Gloverstone that the city sheriffs received from the sheriffs of the county, or the constable of the castle, for conduct to the place of punishment, prisoners who were condemned to death or to be whipped. In like manner, when offenders were apprehended within the city for offences committed in the countv, they were taken to the stone and there handed over to the county authorities. At this point the mayor, when he had occasion to come to the castle, would direct the sword and mace, usually carried before him, to be put down, and the sheriffs laid aside their white wands of office. Such a township must necessarily have been something of a thorn in the side of its neighbour the city. It had been a sanctuary for many years; it was a place where foreigners - that is, non-freemen of the city - had set up dwelling-houses and shops, plied their trades, sold their wares and seriously competed with the freemen of the city, in what no doubt these last considered a highly illegitimate manner. Moreover, 'tiplings of Ale and Beere' took place there, and doubtless many other disorderly occurrences such as might be expected in a place free from civic discipline, and probably little hampered by the rule of the authorities of the castle. No doubt these ' tiplings' were not confined to the inhabitants of Gloverstone, but were taken part in by the baser sort of Cestrian citizens. Hence many quarrels between the opposing parties, and the obvious necessity for bringing the township under the government of the municipality of Chester. In the first quarter of the last century the area was required for public improvements, and the old township disappeared.