53°12N 2°54W, pop (2001e) 118 200. County town of Cheshire, NWC England, UK; on the R Dee, 305 km/189 mi NW of London; important Roman port and military centre; railway; airfield (Hawarden), commercial centre, light engineering, car components, aircraft construction (Broughton), tourism; 13th15th-c cathedral, city walls, two-tiered shopping arcades, 11th-c St John's Church; town hall (1869); football league team, Chester City; Chester Zoo.
Chester is the county town of Cheshire in North West England. It is the main settlement in the City of Chester local government district. The patron saint of Chester is Saint Werburgh.
According to the 2001 census the population of the Chester urban area was 90,925, of whom 80,121 were identified as living in Chester, and the rest in Broughton or Saltney. The wider City of Chester district has a population of around 120,000.
History
Roman Origins
Chester is an old city dating back nearly two millennia to Roman times (from when parts of the City wall date) when it was known as Deva.
A recent Timewatch investigation by the BBC speculated that, from the size and scale of the fort, had the Roman Empire not begun to collapse, Deva would have become the Roman capital of Britain and a launch post for invasions on Ireland.
Despite stories to the contrary, the weir below the Old Dee Bridge was not built by the Romans but by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester between 1077 and 1101 to hold water for his river mills.
Etymology
The name for the city of Chester comes from the Latin word Castra which is present in many other cities that were once Roman camps (e.g.
Christian martyrdoms
People have speculated that Chester, along with Leicester and Caerleon is one of the possible places which the Venerable Bede meant when he referred to the site of several specific early Christian Martyrdoms in Britain. These would have happened at the same time as that of St. Alban the first English martyr, who was killed in the Roman city of Verulamium (beside modern-day St Albans. This 'city of the legions may be identified with Chester, Caerleon, or Leicester. Arthur is said to have fought his ninth battle at the city of the legions and later St Augustine came to the city to try and unite the church and hold his synod with the Welsh Bishops. Chester was probably part of Powys. In 616, Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated a Welsh army at the Battle of Chester and probably established the Anglo-Saxon position in the area from then on.
In the late 7th century, Saint Werburgh founded a religious institution on the present site of St John's Church which later became the first cathedral. St. Paul in Chester (the present cathedral).
The Saxons extended and strengthened the walls of Chester to protect the city against the Danes, who occupied it for a short time until Alfred seized all the cattle and laid waste the surrounding land to drive them out. In fact it was Alfred's daughter Ethelfleda Lady of the Mercians that built the new Saxon 'burh' .The Anglo-Saxons called Chester Ceaster or Legeceaster.
At the end of the 10th century the new king, Edgar, after having been crowned at Bath, came to Chester where he was rowed up the River Dee by eight minor kings, who then swore fealty and allegiance to him at St John's Church.
Middle Ages
After the 1066 Norman Conquest and the 'harrying of the north', the Normans took Chester, destroying 200 houses in the city. It is now known as Chester Castle and was rebuilt in stone by Henry II in 1245, after the last of six Norman earls died without issue.
Chester's earls were a law unto themselves. The traditional independence that Chester had under the earls was confirmed by a charter of Richard II in 1398 stating that 'the said county of Chester shall be the principality of Chester'.
The first earl had endowed a great Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Werburgh in 1092 (on the site of a church of c660AD dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, which was moved to the city centre by the Cross where it still stands). The monastery was dissolved under Henry VIII in 1540 and was rededicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary to become Chester Cathedral. Previously, the first Chester Minster or Cathedral had become plain St John's Church after the see was transferred to Coventry in the early 12th century.
There is a popular belief that it was the silting of the River Dee that created the land which is now Chester's racecourse (known as the Roodee), on which a stone cross still stands which is said to have been erected in memory of Lady Trawst who died as a result of an image of the Virgin Mary called Holy Rood falling upon her in Hawarden church a few miles down the river). Physical evidence for the silting of this area of the city is shown by the building of the 14th century port watch tower, now known as the Water Tower, which projects from the north-west corner of the city walls.
Chester's port flourished under Norman rule. During the 13th century Chester was famous for its fur trade and even by the mid-16th century the port was importing large amounts of fur and skins.
However the estuary was silting up so that trading ships to the port of Chester had to harbour at Neston, Heswall, Croyton and regularly at Redcliffe 16 miles downstream. Stuart times
Originally the port was located to the north of the Watergate just below the city wall.
In the 1640s English Civil War the Battle of Rowton Heath occurred in nearby meadows, where the Parliamentary Forces crushed the Royalist loyal Cavaliers. As the fighting reached the suburbs it was watched by King Charles I from Chester's Phoenix Tower (now also called King Charles' Tower) on the City Walls.
By 1646, after having refused to surrender nine times and with Lord Byron at the head of the city's defences, having only spring water and boiled wheat for lunch - the citizens had already eaten their dogs - a treaty was signed.
Worse was to come;
Chester port declined with most of the ships going from the colonies now going to Liverpool, although it was still the major port of passenger embarkation for Ireland until the early 1800s. The road to the port of Chester was called the 'Great Irish Road' and ran from Bristol to Chester. By 1840 it could no longer effectively compete with Liverpool as a port, although significant shipbuilding and ropemaking continued at Chester. It was once thought that Chester's maritime trade was brought to an end by the silting of the River Dee, although recent research has shown this was not the case. It was the use of larger ocean-going ships that led to the diversion of the trade to the relatively young town of Liverpool and other locations on the River Mersey, which had long been rivals to Chester, such as Runcorn.
In the Georgian era, Chester became again a centre of affluence, a town with elegant terraces where the landed aristocracy lived.
The Industrial Revolution brought the Chester Canal (now part of the Shropshire Union Canal) to the city (which was dubbed 'England's first unsuccessful canal', after its failure to bring heavy industry to Chester) as well as railways and two large central stations, only one of which remains.
The Victorians built Chester's Gothic Town Hall, which, along with the Cathedral, dominates the city skyline. The reason for this was declared by the architects to be simply because "Chester won't give the Welsh the time of day".
The Eastgate clock was also built at this time, and is a central feature as it crosses Eastgate street, and is part of the city walls.The clock is very popular with tourists, and this has given it the grand title of the second most photographed clock in the UK (perhaps even the World) after Big Ben.
Present day
A considerable amount of land in Chester is owned by Duke of Westminster who owns an estate at Eaton near the village of Eccleston. Grosvenor is the Duke's family name, which explains such features in the City such as the Grosvenor Hotel and Grosvenor Park. Much of Chester's architecture dates from the Victorian era, with many of the buildings that aren't modelled on the Jacobean half timbered style of the medieval times being designed by John Douglas, employed by the Duke as his principal architect.
In the late 1960s the City authorities realised that new developments were radically altering the look of the City centre.
In 1969 the City Conservation Area was designated.
On January 13, 2002, Chester was granted Fairtrade City status.
In August 2005 the council announced plans to demolish the police station, an unsightly edifice built in the 1960s. However, the replacement building, a cylindrical glass hotel/cafe, has sparked controversy, partly due to the large number of other glass structures planned within the city, especially the new council offices.
The Northgate development will demolish the old Council Offices, which will move into a new building on an old car-park. This structure was unpopular with many of the older citizens of Chester, leading to a poem by local writer, Gordon Emery, in the Chester Standard dubbing it the 'Glass Slug'.
Cestrians are often perceived (partly-jokingly) of being 'anti-Welsh' although many have Welsh ancestors. However, many Cestrians work and shop in Wales, and Chester shares a radio station with Wrexham, Wales.
Chester is twinned with the French town of Sens, Loerrach in Germany, Lakewood, Colorado in the United States and Senigallia, Italy.
Culture
Shopping
The city is a popular shopping centre, with its unique 'Rows' or galleries (basically two levels of shops) which date from medieval times. The city is heavily populated by chain stores both in the centre and on retail parks to the west, and also features two indoor shopping centres, an indoor market and a department store, Browns of Chester, once known as 'the Harrods of the North', now absorbed by the Debenhams chain. The latter refers to the city's Roman past, and is to be demolished in the Northgate Development to make way for new shopping streets, a new indoor market, a new library and a performing arts centre. Sport
The city has two cinemas and a theatre, the Gateway Theatre, and in the summer the city hosts the annual Chester Music Festival, the Chester Midsummer Watch Parade and the Chester Mystery Plays, the latter of which dates from medieval times. Numerous pubs and wine bars populate the city, some of which are medieval, and Chester also has some night-clubs. The city also has a football team, Chester City F.C., who play in the Saunders Honda Stadium and a national basketball team, the Chester Jets, who play in the city's Northgate Arena leisure centre. Also to the east side of the city are the UK's largest zoological gardens, Chester Zoo. Chester has its own film society. The River Dee is also home to several rowing clubs, notably Grosvenor Rowing Club and Royal Chester Rowing Club as well as two school ones 'King's Chester Rowing Club' and 'Queen's Park High Rowing Club'.
Media
Chester's newspapers are the daily Chester Evening Leader, the weekly Chester Chronicle, and the free newspapers Chester Mail and Chester Standard. Chester is the city where Channel 4's soap-opera Hollyoaks is set (although most filming takes place around Liverpool).
Industry
The city's main industries are retail, tourism and financial services. Chester's main employer is MBNA Europe. There is also a large Shell oil refinery, several large financial firms including HBOS plc, M&S Money and also a chemical factory, operated by ICI to the north of Chester near Ellesmere Port.
Chester has its own university, the University of Chester, and a major hospital, the Countess of Chester Hospital, named after Diana, Countess of Chester.
Transport
Chester has a railway station to the North East of the city centre, designed by Francis Thompson with an impressive Italianate frontage dating from 1848, though the interior is somewhat dilapidated, having lost a roof in the Chester General rail crash. Chester Northgate station closed in 1969, was demolished and is now the site of the Northgate Arena leisure centre.
Bus transport in the city is provided by the council owned and operated Chester Bus (formerly Chester City Transport) as well as First Group and Arriva. There is to be a new bus exchange built in the city as well as a new coach station.
The city is also a hub for major roads, including the M53 from Liverpool, the M56 towards Manchester, and the A55 which runs along the North Wales coast to Holyhead.
During the late 19 centuries, Chester had an extensive tram network from Saltney in the west at the Welsh border to Chester General station, Tarvin Road and Great Boughton in the North West. The tramway was established in 1871 by Chester Tramways Corporation.
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