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The Walls

Recorder Steps

Visible Parts of the Roman Walls

		The Roman occupation of Chester extended over a period of about three centuries from A.D. 47, when Ostorius Scapula established the 20th Legion (Valeria Victrix) in a military base known as Deva (from the river on which it stood). Ancient inscriptions on tombstones found in the lower courses seem to indicate that the Roman Walls were built towards the end of the second century, by which time the camp or castra, from which Chester takes its name, was firmly established. The area in which the Castle stands was included within the City Walls by Aethelflaeda, the Lady of the Mercians, in the early years of the tenth century.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS

The most distinctive characteristic of Chester is that the principal part of the city is enclosed within a complete circuit of ancient walls, the line of the existing Walls having remained unchanged since A.D. 907. The former wall-enclosed Roman fortress was in the form of a rectangle traversed, in the usual Roman fashion, by four main streets leading north, south, east and west to four gates from the centrally placed Praetorium or headquarters, the site of which is now occupied by St. Peter's Church. The stone "High Cross," from which the centre of the city takes its name, was pulled down by the Parliamentarians in 1646, but a portion of it is preserved in the Grosvenor Museum along with its former neighbours, the stocks, whipping post and pillory.
A glance at the streets will show that the Roman plan survived the dark ages of the barbarian invasions and the medieval city has been, as it were, superimposed on the Roman foundations. The four main streets, lined with mediaeval Rows and half-timbered houses, form a magnificent shopping centre and give the city an old-world appearance enhanced by the ancient Walls and Gates.
Chester, the geographical capital of Cheshire, is a County Borough, pleasantly located on rising ground at the head of the estuary of the River Dee, 18 miles south of Liverpool, and 180 miles north-west of London; its environs are mainly residential, and, with the exception of a prosperous industrial area along the Welsh bank of the River Dee estuary, the surrounding country is completely rural in character.

Two thousand years of history built in wood and stone! If this is true of any city it is surely true of Chester; with its Walls which were once manned by the redoubtable warriors of the 20th Legion and overrun by the Saxon invaders, which were rebuilt and extended by Aethelflaeda , Lady of the Mercians, in the year 907, and withstood the incursions of the Welsh in the time of Edward I, and whence the ill-fated Charles I gazed upon the defeat of the Royalist forces at Rowton Moor; with its Cathedral dating back to the times of William II, when the all-powerful Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, compromised with the Devil by the foundation of a monastery to whose wealth the beautiful cloisters and magnificent refectory still bear eloquent testimony; with its elevated Rows from which the 14th century Cestrians could give a warm reception to the Welsh on the rare occasions on which they managed to break into the city, but to which the fine shops of 20th-century Chester now accord a welcome of a much pleasanter sort to the present - day "invader"; with its quaint Old Houses with their carved facades overlooking the principal streets, giving evidence of the wealth and substance of Chester's medieval burghers; and with the famous River Dee which lapped the walls of the city and made Chester the centre of the trade with Ireland, and on which King Edgar was rowed in triumph by eight vassal kings.

Indeed , bygone Chester presents a perfect mirror of the pulsating life of a prosperous and important mediaeval English city with its mystery plays and pageants winding their way slowly through the narrow streets, each guild anxious to outdo the rest in the magnificence of its production, and expending all its ingenuity and resources in representing St. George and the Dragon, "very lively to behold," the Devil, "very boisterous," and savages with "huge blacke shaggie hayre." Although these picturesque features have now passed away, the setting is but little changed and the visitor today will be able to recapture to a remarkable extent the glamour of the Middle Ages and to picture life as it was in this most English of cities maybe three or five hundred years ago.

Quay Wall - Race Course.
By looking over the wall , at the opposite end to Black Friars a section of the Roman quay wall can be seen , this was from a time when the river ran a different course . With permission a closer look can be obtained from the Race Course Manager.

North Wall -Two sections of the original north Roman wall are visible between the Northgate and King Charles Tower , about 3ft below the modern parapet . Parts of the east Roman wall can be seen by the Cathedral , just outside the present city walls by the steps to Frodsham street , near the Bell Tower , the other section a little further north . The foundations of the South East Angle Tower are visible from the wall by the Newgate .

East Wall -
Two sections of the base of the fortress wall can be seen near the Cathedral, just outside the present city walls. One section is by the steps to Frodsham Street, near the Bell Tower and the other a little further north. In both cases the difference between the even courses of the Roman wall and the irregular line of the Medieval wall is clear.

12, St. John Street.
A section of the fortress wall in the same line as the South East Angle Tower can be seen to the right of the yard at the side of these premises.

South East Angle Tower - The foundations of the tower are visible either at ground level or from the wall by the Newgate. Fortresses had towers at the gates and generally at intervals along the walls and they also had towers at each angle. They were built inside the walls, projecting above them. The depression in the grass outside represents the inner lip of the defensive ditch which was also part of the original fortification.

North West Angle Tower -
This was found when the north wall was breached during the construction of the inner ring road in 1965. Its position has been marked in cobbles on the pavement and road surface just below the modern footbridge.