Chester's Walls

A circular walk of Chester's city walls. Distance 2.5 Miles.

More information about Chester's city walls can be found on the Chesterwiki site with much more detail of all the sights and links to several walking tours described at various time in history. With several other sites providing thorough historic detail of the walls my own account will just serve as a brief pictorial account of a walk around the walls.

The walls have had a few phases in their history. Much of the North and East sides date back to the Roman fort. The walls were rebuilt and extended in medieval times as the city expanded to the south and west. From the late 18th Century as the walls no longer had a defensive function and the roadways needed widening the gateways were rebuilt and the walls became a picturesque walkway around the city.

Below - I started at East Gate, effectively the 'main entrance' to the city as it faces the road from London, or in my case the railway station.

Google Map

Generally at this point I'd post links to Victorian maps or something but in this instance I've added the best map of each era I could find.

Below - Roman Chester map from British History Online, this is of course a modern map. It also shows how half the walls of the Roman Fort were incorporated into the walls of the expanded medieval city.

Below - Medieval Chester, map from the  Chesterwiki site 

Below - The modern city walls walkway.

Below - Heading south from East Gate I reach Wolf Gate (the small arch on the right). In 1938 it was replaced with New Gate on the left, the newest gate on the city walls.

Close to Newgate the foundation of a Roman corner tower can be seen, the south wall of the Roman fort which headed east from here was removed and beyond this point the walls were of medieval origin.

Below - Foundations of the Roman corner tower with the Wolf Gate seen in the background.

Also outside the city walls near New Gate are the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre and alongside a stretch of the medieval wall are the Roman Gardens in which various pieces of Roman stonework found around the city have been displayed.

 

Below - From the Roman Gardens the site of a repaired breach in the walls from the Civil War.

Below - Some of the Roman artifacts on display in the Roman Gardens.

Below - Section of a Roman bathhouse reconstructed in the Roman Gardens.

At the South of the city a Roman Bridge crossed the River Dee, the river is still crossed by a bridge at this point. As with the other former gatehouses in the city walls this has been replaced with a wider archway when the walls ceased to have a military function.

Below - The Bridge Gate

Below - The Old Dee Bridge.

The Roman gate for people approaching from the south would have been some way to the north of this later gate on the lost southern wall of the Roman fort. It would have been close to where White Friars meets Bridge Street.

Below - Site of the south gate in the fort walls today.

Chester Castle is situated within the medieval walls in the south west corner.The castle is managed by English Heritage and is open to the public.

Below - Chester Castle. 

Below - The Water Gate. Where the Racecourse now stands was once the harbour until the River Dee was diverted around the Racecourse.

Again the equivilent gate in the lost Roman west wall can be found a couple of blocks in from the surviving gate. The Roman wall would have stood to the east of St Martin's Way.

Below - Site of the Roman west gate which led out towards the harbour.

Below - The railway cuts through the north west corner of the city walls. Though the bridge below looks like a regular footbridge it is in fact carrying the walkway along the walls over the railway.

Below - The Water Tower at the north west corner of the walls.

Below - Information board on the Water Tower.

Below - The section of wall and tower that protected the harbour from the north.

Below - The wall walkway crossing the railway again.

Below - Pemberton's Parlour.

Below - Information board on Pemberton's Parlour.

Below - Where St Martin's Way passes under the walkway along the city wall was the site of the North West corner of the Roman walls. This has been marked by a plaque and marked out in the paving.

Below - Morgan's Mount, a former watch tower close to what was previously the north west corner of the Roman walls.

Below - Information board on Morgan's Mount. An old painting made at the site serves as an interesting then and now comparison. 

Below - at the foot of Morgan's Mount is a sculpture of a broken Civil War cannon.

Below - North Gate.

Below - On the inside of the walls is evidence of a bricked up archway just west of North Gate.

Below - The Shropshire Union Canal seen from Northgate Street with the walls on the right.

Below - The King Charles or Phoenix Tower at what was the north east corner in the walls since Roman times.

Below - Close to the King Charles / Phoenix Tower the Roman and Medieval phases of the wall can be seen.

Below - The walls passing the Cathedral.

Below - The Cathedral seen from the cloisters.

After passing the Cathedral I arrive back at Eastgate having completed my circuit of the city walls

Whilst in Chester I also visited the Deva Roman Discovery Centre close to the site of the Bridge Gate in the lost south wall of the Roman fort. This houses displays about the Roman fort and examples of the complex layers of archaeology beneath the city.  

 

Middleton Park Tramway, Leeds

Starting Point - Former Junction Pub, Dewsbury Road, Leeds. Finishing Point - Lingwell Road Bus Stop, Middleton. Distance 

Open Street Map

1937 Map

Prior to the First World War the Middleton area of Leeds was a sparsely populated area with mines, farms and the Middleton Estate. After the war the Middleton Estate became a park and work began to build "homes fit for heros." The area struggled with poor transport links and a light railway was built through the new park from a connection to the Middleton Colliery railway to take construction materials to Middleton while the new Ring Road was built to connect Dewsbury Road to Belle Isle Road. When the Ring Road had reached Middleton the light railway was converted in to a tram route to serve the new suburb.

Below - The former Junction pub on Dewsbury Road, now apartments. Here the new tram route branched off the lines along Dewsbury Road and on to Moor Road seen on the right of the picture.

  

Moor Road is now split in two by the M621. The Public Park shown in the old map has also downsized as a couple of tower blocks have since been built on the site of the tennis courts and one of the bowling greens. One of the bowling green pavilions survives and seems to be in use as a council store.

A footbridge crosses over the motorway leading to a footpath alongside the Rugby pitch and under the Tunstall Road roundabout to the other stretch of Moor Road.

Moor Road is the terminus of the Middleton Railway, the entrance to the railway is actually the former entrance to Burton Road from Moor Road. The railway's workshop and running shed occupy the former site of the tramway which ran alongside the former colliery railway on which the heritage railway now operates.

Below - The Middleton Railway's running shed on the site of the former tram lines. The base of one of the masts for the wires was unearthed whilst digging the inspection pit in front of the shed.

A foot and cycle path runs alongside the railway's Moor Road yard. At the south end of the yard a path crosses the railway to connect back on to Moor Road, the path that follows the tramway route crosses under the motorway in a subway. This was the site of a rail connection into Dartmouth Yard which crossed the tramway and connected various industries on the west side of the railway. The subway is close to the course of the rail connection which until the motorway was built required a reversal in to the various works. When the motorway tunnel was built a new connection to Dartmouth yard was built facing the Broom Pit direction. A stub of this connection survives and the footpath crosses it at what were the gates at the entrance to the yard. Turning left brings us on to the former tramway which ran on a reserve section (i.e. its own trackbed rather than running along streets) all the way from here to the Ring Road in Middleton. The tramway curves away from the railway. Before the tramway was built a Great Northern Railway goods line crossed over the colliery line just north of the John Charles Approach bridge, when the tramway was built it passed under the existing viaduct to the west that carried the GNR line over Bell Isle Beck.

Below - The trackbed of the tramway curves away from the Middleton Railway.

Below - Looking along the tramway trackbed towards Middleton. In the bushes at the side the embankment sides drop away as shown on the old map.

1934 Map

There is no trace of where the former Great Northern line crossed the tramway on a viaduct, the path connects to a path up to John Charles Approach. The South Leeds Stadium and John Charles Centre for Sport have been built over the area were the tramway curved towards Middleton Park 

Below - A 1955 image from around this location on Pinterest. The colliery tips have been removed. A lot of the material was used in the construction of the motorway.

Below - An image found on Flickr of an ex London Feltham tram on the section of the route were the South Leeds Stadium and John Charles Centre for Sport now stand. 

The construction of the sporting facilities necessitates a diversion on John Charles Approach and Middleton Grove to pick up the tram route again in Middleton Park. After passing the Middleton Park Equestrian Centre there are a set of gates across the road marking the entrance to the park, just beyond the gates a path goes off on the right following what the old map shows as the edge of the park. The tramway ran through what is now the Equestrian Centre. It can be seen that this is much lower than the path, in the 1970s coal was extracted by opencast mining here. Where the tramway entered Middleton Wood the footpath joins the former tramway and the other old paths seen on the old map. A sign post points along the tramway, though it is easy to tell that it was a double track trackbed.  

Below - Signpost at the start of the former tram route in the park.

Below - Looking along the former tramway.

Below - Walking along the trackbed occasional wooden sleepers can still be seen. Occasionally the round metal base of one of the masts appears as well as other items like track fixing bolts. 

1934 Map

On the right where a path joins the tramway remains of a brick structure can be seen. When I first discovered this there were pieces of ceramic conduit around the site but these all appear to have been picked out since. This suggests it was an electrical equipment hut which fits with records of the power supply in the park section being upgraded. 

Below - Remnants of an electrical equipment hut.

Below - A couple of sleepers at the side of the trackbed.

There were two tram stops within Middleton Park, one close to the clearings and one close to Middleton Lodge, unfortunately these are not shown on the map. At the site of the clearings stop there are remains of a concrete platform on the left hand (Middleton bound) side at the back of which seems to have been a drainage channel so perhaps the area where people waited for trams here was prone to getting muddy. An information board was provided at the site of the tram stop but at the time of writing this had been vandalised.

Below - Remnants of the platform at the clearings.

Below - The steps up to the clearings, these would have been built to connect to the tram stop.

Similarly the stop for Middleton Lodge is marked by a set of steps, though it was also the crossing point of existing paths.

Below - The steps up to Middleton Lodge from the tramway, the second tram stop within Middleton Park would have been here.

Below - An image found on Flickr showing a Middleton Bogie tram in this location, the photo looks to have been taken from the steps on the above photo.

North of the Middleton Lodge stop the tramway went in to a cutting. Until recently it had been quite overgrown but has recently been cleared with the establishment of cycle trails in this part of the park.

Below - Tramway cutting north of the Middleton Lodge stop.

At the end of the stretch of cutting the path reaches what is now the area close to the Bike Hub which is covered in pump tracks. Prior to this a Golf club had landscaped over the area so the trackbed has been obliterated.

Below - One of a few remains of rollers dotted along the former tram route. These would have been used on the various sports facilities at the golf course and on the clearings, it seems that if they rolled away they were replaced rather than dragged back up the cuttings. 

The tramway would have run through the middle of the cafe at the Bike Hub. The cycle path from the Bike Hub car park towards the centre of Middleton follows the former tram route.

1933 Map (top right corner of map)

Below - The cycle path from the Bike Hub on the site where the tramway emerged from the park and ran alongside the Ring Road.

Below - a photo found on Pinterest showing a Middleton Bogie tram at this location. A stop was provided at where Town Street met the Ring Road.

 1933 Map

Continuing along the Ring Road the tramway ran along on what are now the ample grass verges between Middleton Park Road and the Ring Road. Stops were provided for the Middleton Arms pub, where the Aldi supermarket now stands and Lingwell Road. These are at the same location as the current Middleton Park Circus and Lingwell Road bus stops.

The old map shows the tramway terminating at the Lingwell Road stop. The route was went onto become a circular route when Belle Isle Road was extended to meet the Ring Road. Belle Isle Road is a dual carriageway with a grass verge in the middle, when it was built the tramway occupied the space between the two carriageways. The tramway also cut through the centre of Belle Isle Circus. Going back to the 1937 Map at the start of the page a tram line can be seen towards the centre of the page terminating at the corner of Moor Road and Belle Isle Road, the tramway was extended from here to Belle Isle Circus in 1940 and to Lingwell Road in 1949 to complete the circular route. Sadly the Middleton Circular tram route would be quite short lived, closing with the rest of the Leeds tram system just a decade later.

In the early 2000s the eastern part of the Middleton Circular tram route was proposed for rebuilding as part of the Leeds Supertram scheme, sadly this was cancelled in 2005. Unfortunately ever since the trams closed there has been almost continuous talk of building a new public transport system but the talk has never led to action. 

More photos of the route in the 1950s can be found in this gallery.