CITY WALLS AND GATES

The existing Walls follow the line of the east and north Roman Walls between the Newgate and the Phoenix ( King Charles's ) Tower, and thence to Morgan's Mount (no portion of the west and south Roman Walls existing above ground level) and for the remainder of their circuit follow the line of the 10th-century extensions of Aethelflaeda. The Walls, as they appear on the earliest known plans, were strengthened by several towers, which were placed within bow-shot of each other and erected chiefly on the north and east sides.

Chester is the only English city with a complete circuit of ancient Walls; the Walls forming a continuous elevated promenade of nearly two miles with delightful views of mountain, river and green meadow.

Mounting the steps which lead to the Walls at the Eastgate and proceeding northwards, we shortly obtain a fine view of the Cathedral, with the Lady Chapel, Chapter House and Refectory. On the right, underneath the steps leading down to Frodsham Street, can be seen traces of the shell of a mediaeva1 drum tower and a short section of the Roman Wall excavated in 1928. We then come to the Kaleyard Gate, formerly the Abbot of St. Werburgh's private entrance to his kitchen garden (Kaleyard) situated just outside the City Walls.

Further on there were two towers, now destroyed; one occupied by the Saddlers' Company, but taken down in 1780, and yet another rented by the Barbers' Company.

In a commanding position at the north-east angle of the Walls stands the Phoenix (once known as the Newton) Tower, the Phoenix being the crest of the Painters' Guild, who used the tower as a meeting-place in the early years of the seventeenth century. The tower is popularly known as King Charles's Tower, as it was from here that the ill-fated Charles I, attended by Sir Francis Gamul, the Mayor, and Alderman Cowper, watched the defeat of the Royalist forces under Sir Marmaduke Langdale at Rowton Moor, on the 24th September, 1645. During the later stages of the fight the Royal party moved to the Cathedral tower, where the King narrowly escaped death when a bullet from St. John's "gave him a salute" and struck down a captain who was standing at his side. The next morning, King Charles, having slept that night at Sir Francis Gamul's house in Lower Bridge Street, marched away over Dee Bridge with five hundred horse to Denbigh Castle, leaving the city to be starved into surrender. The upper room of the tower now houses a small but interesting museum of relics of the Roman and later periods, prints, etc.

The Walls here stand high above the Canal, which pierces its way through a deep cutting in the solid sandstone rock upon which the city is built. This cutting is probably a survival from the moat, which formed an additional protection to the city on this side. The moat is known to have been in existence in Queen Elizabeth's reign, but in process of time became filled up, until re-excavated in the early part of the eighteenth century. We next reach the Northgate , from which there is a fine view of the Welsh Hills. The present gate was erected in 1809-10 at the expense of Robert, Earl Grosvenor, to the design of Mr. Thomas Harrison, who also designed the Grosvenor Bridge and the modern part of the Castle. Above the narrow passageway of the old gate, flanked on either side by massive towers, stood the old City Gaol, and many feet below and hewn from the solid rock, was the ill-ventilated and noisome dungeon known as Little Ease, where the condemned awaiting execution were lodged within easy access of the gallows. The city records show only too plainly that the dungeon justified its name. This gateway guarded the main road to the North, the fosse being crossed by means of a drawbridge, across which condemned felons were taken to the Chapel of Little St. John, which stands on the far side of the Canal, just beyond the Northgate. Attempts at rescue, once the prisoner was outside the city, were so frequent that it was considered necessary to construct a private means of communication between the prison and the Chapel. A narrow bridge with iron railings on either side, now known as the Bridge of Sighs , was therefore erected in 1793, at a cost of £20; the railings have since been removed.

The Northgate was in the charge of the Sheriffs of the city, who presided over the pillory and stocks, which were very freely used, and grumbled at the expense of the not infrequent executions, for which they were responsible. It was also the duty of the Sheriffs to summon the citizens to the Assembly of Portmote, by sounding the horn.

A little farther on is Morgan's Mount , a watch tower, consisting of a chamber on the Walls with an open platform above, on which the Royalists placed a battery during the siege by the Parliamentarians. A little further westward is the Goblin Tower, called in Henry VIII's reign, Dille's Tower. It was originally twice its present height, and was occupied by the Smiths' Company. In 1730 it had the name of Pemberton's Parlour, from the fact that a ropemaker of that name used to sit in it, watching his men at work under the Walls. On the wall of this tower is fixed a tablet which records extensive repairs of the Walls and pavements carried out in Queen Anne's reign, and, in addition to the Mayors in office at the time, gives the names of the Muringers. These officers were appointed to administer the Murage, a tax payable from early times to the Crown, but earmarked for the proper maintenance of the City Walls and towers.

A valuable hoard of Saxon silver pennies was found near the eastern angle of this tower in 1914. The coins represented the reigns of Eadgar, Eadweard and Aethelred, covering the years A.D. 959-1016. Several of the pieces were minted at Chester by the moneyers Boigea, Aelfstan and Leoman respectively.

The last two towers on this portion of the Walls are at the north-west corner. One, called Bonewaldesthorne's Tower, is actually on the Walls; the other, the Water Tower, is some distance away at a lower level. The two are connected by a curtain wall, down which runs a flight of steps.

The upper tower formerly protected the exposed corner of the Walls, and guarded the entrance to the port in the river below. Eventually the river receded so far from its former course that the other tower was built lower down. From the Indenture preserved in the Town Hall Muniment Room, it appears that the lower tower was built in 1322 for the sum of £100 by John de Helpstone, a mason. The river has now receded still further, and with the silting-up of the estuary the once flourishing port is little more than a memory.

The Water Tower Grounds, in which the Water Tower stands, are open to the public and contain bowling greens and tennis courts. To reach them from the Walls, the visitor should descend the steps on the outside just before coming to Bonewaldesthorne's Tower, and bear to the left. Some interesting relics are preserved in the grounds, including an architect's model of the Grosvenor Bridge and a set of dwarf pillars which once formed the heating chamber beneath the floor of a Roman bath discovered in Bridge Street. Entrance to the Water Tower can be obtained on application to the groundsman. On the left close to the Royal Infirmary is Lady Barrows' Hey, a drilling ground and Cemetery in the Roman period, and the site of wholesale burials during the Plague.

About fifty yards from the Watergate there will be observed in front of a house, built about 1780, a sedan chair porch , with entrance from the sides only, this being the last of its kind in the city.

The Watergate was rebuilt in 1789. The water of the Dee is represented in old maps as coming right up to the gate, but this could only have been at high tides, as in 1340 the keeper, by warrant, was entitled to take "toll of every cart and horseload entering, as well as of every ship or boat coming to the gate with large fish, salt, salmon, or herring."
The Sergeant of the Watergate was required to execute processes on the River Dee for the Mayor, who had extensive powers as an Admiral and exercised an important jurisdiction at the Port of Chester and over the estuary of the Dee.
Beyond the Watergate the Walls run between Nuns Road, on the left, and the Roodee. Nuns Road takes its name from St. Mary's Nunnery, which was situated on the north-west side of the Castle, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Militia Barracks.

In close contiguity lay the property belonging to the three communities of friars after which the neighbouring streets are named. The Convent of Black Friars (otherwise called Dominicans or Preaching Friars) occupied ground on which stands the Stanley Palace. The Grey Friars (Franciscans or Friars Minor) had their house near the Watergate and Stanley Place. The Convent of White Friars (Carmelites) stood on the east side of Weaver Street, where parts of the boundary walls are still to be seen.
The Walls then cross Grosvenor Road and skirting the Castle approach the river at the Old Dee Bridge.

Just before ascending the steps leading up to the promenade over the Bridgegate, the visitor should notice an arch in the wall, now filled in with masonry. This marks the site of a postern, called the Shipgate or Shepegate, also Hole-in-the-Wall, now re-erected in Grosvenor Park, giving access into the city from the ford across the Dee, and ever since the time of Edward I under the charge of the keeper of the Bridgegate.

The Bridgegate was rebuilt by the Corporation in 1782, and replaced a massive arched gateway flanked by two strong, round towers, on one of which, in the Tudor period, was erected a lofty octagonal tower, called Tyrer's Tower, which was used in connection with the system then adopted for supplying the citizens with water.

Pursuing our course over the Bridgegate, with a fine view of the river and boats on the right, we come first to a flight of steps leading down to the Groves, known as" The Recorder's Steps," and then continuing along the Walls we ascend the flight of steps known as the" Wishing Steps," arranged in six flights of three each. Here, if we would obtain our wish, we must run up the whole flight of steps and down again, and finally up once more to the top without taking a breath. A short distance beyond we proceed down a slope on our left into Park Street, which contains some fine old half-timbered cottages, and proceed alongside the Walls towards the Newgate. This temporary diversion is necessary pending the completion of a larger gateway to the south of the Newgate, which is now too narrow for the requirements of modern traffic.

This development, originally involved the construction of a new by-pass road, leading directly from the new gateway towards St. John's Church, but as excavations made at five widely separated points indicated that the proposed road would have passed across the centre of the remains of what experts believe to be the largest legionary Roman Amphitheater yet discovered, it has been decided to widen Little St. John Street and not to proceed with the by - pass road. The northern half of the site has now been secured, and H.M. Office of Works have undertaken the responsibility for the excavation and maintenance of this portion of the remains.

At the north-east corner of the Newgate, can be seen the foundations of a Roman tower, discovered in 1929. This tower was clearly intended to guard what used to be the south-eastern corner of the Roman fortress; and a little further on, in the basement of Telephone Buildings, in St. John Street, may be seen a length of the lower courses of the old Roman Wall discovered in 1908.

Re-ascending the Walls by some temporary steps, and proceeding over the Newgate, otherwise known as the Peppergate, which despite its name was certainly in use in the reign of Edward VI (1552), and probably very much earlier, we next see on our right a structure known as Thimbleby's Tower, and from this point it is only some 100 yards to our starting point, the Eastgate, which was erected in 1769 at the expense of Richard, Lord Grosvenor. The clock is a later addition in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The former gateway, which was taken down in 1768, consisted of a comparatively narrow Roman archway flanked by massive octagonal towers four storeys high with rooms on each storey let by the Corporation to divers tenants, including one of the City Companies.

The keepers of the Eastgate were responsible for the inspection of weights and measures, and exacted toll on a great variety of articles. Records show that in 1573 the Corporation was involved in a dispute with Sir Christopher Hatton, the Elizabethan Lord Chancellor, as to the ownership of the Eastgate towers.