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.