Chester

Nestled into the streets of Chester city centre. The cathedral occupies a site in the north eastern corner of the city wall. Hemmed in by the wall itself and the principal Roman thoroughfare, the Via Principalis, running north south through the old Roman fort. It does not have the grandeur of other cathedrals like Lincoln or York, nor the majesty of Wells but hidden along it's southern walls are a myriad of stone carvings, gargoyles, people and animals, dating from the 19th century refurbishment and improvement of the Cathedral fabric. Internally west of the screen in the nave is the Chester imp, and the 13th century misericords canopies and benches of the choir are elaborately carved with biblical scenes and animals, said to be amongst the finest in the country. In the refectory, now open as a public eating place, the Creation Window, by Rosalind Grimshaw, is a fine example of modern stained glass, installed in 2001. Indeed internally the cathedral contains some of the finest surviving ecclesiastical architecture in the country.

Click on any photograph to see a slide show in a larger sizeThe Cathedral seen from Abbey Green on the north eastern side of the building

Like many English churches of early Christian origin the cathedral in Chester was established on ground with previous religious significance. It is thought that a Druidic temple stood somewhere on the site and was replaced by a temple dedicated to the Roman god Apollo. When Roman Britain converted to the Christian faith in the 4th century the basilica is said to have became dedicated to St Peter and St Paul and during Saxon times there was a chapel dedicated to St Peter on the site. The size of the cathedral buildings that now cover the area make it impossible to establish through archaeological evidence what stood here prior to the creation of the monastery and it's abbey.

Benedictine Monastery

In the early 10th century a church dedicated to St Werburgh and St Oswald was built on the site by Aethelfleda to house the saints remains. Aethelred, Earl of Mercia, husband to Aethefleda was a follower of the cult of St Oswald. St Oswald's being the parish church ministering to the city and housed within the south transept of the abbey building. The dedication to St Peter and St Paul was transferred to a new church, now St Peter's, standing at the cross in the city centre.

St Werburgh's church was later to become a church of secular canons (essentially similar to a cathedral but without a bishop or diocesan responsibilities) and was demolished in 1093 to be replaced by a Benedictine monastery established by Hugh Lupus, first Earl of Chester. Hugh Lupus himself was to become a monk in his final years and was buried within the grounds of the monastery.

Some of the oldest parts of the modern day cathedral date from this period. Built in the Romanesque style with rounded arches the final building to be constructed was the Chapter House in 1250. At this time a modernisation, in the contemporary Gothic style, began. Starting with the Lady Chapel at the east end of the church. This work continued at periods throughout the next 300 years and was not complete at the dissolution in 1538. Notably the western tower was never completed.

St Oswald's Parish Church

Apart from a brief excursion to the guild chapel of St Nicholas which stands opposite the cathedral (now occupied by a chemist's shop) on St Werburgh Street the parish church of St Oswald continued to occupy the south transept until 1881 when the new church of St Thomas in Parkgate Street became the new parish church. In the later years the church was actually walled off from the rest of the cathedral.

St John the Baptist's Church

Briefly Chester's cathedral was the Church of St John the Baptist, still extant, but in greatly reduced form, near the amphitheatre. Built at a time when the church was split between the Celtic and Roman churches the building of St John's outside of the city walls is testament to the separation of the two factions.

The church is said to have been established in 689 by Aethelred King of Mercia (not the same as the later Earl) after he had had a dream in which God instructed him to build a church in a place where he saw a white hind. It may be built upon the site of an earlier Roman Christian shrine.

In 1075 Peter, Bishop of Lichfield moved his see here after it was decreed that all bishoprics should be associated with major cities. The diocese of Lichfield covered a vast area from the Trent to the Solway Firth. Peter died in 1082 and the succeeding Bishop, Robert of Limesey, moved the see to a wealthy moneastery in Coventry making the see considerably wealthier. St John's became a co-cathedral with Coventry until the 13th century and retained a dean and secular canons and functioned as a collegiate church until the Reformation.

It is to St John's church that King Edgar was rowed by regional kings for consecration after his crowning in Bath. At the dissolution parts of St John's church were demolished. Abbots from St Werburgh's Abbey would receive benediction at St John's upon taking office and at the dissolution it was in St John's that Thomas Clark set up his see before transferring it to the new cathedral.

St John's today is a curious mix. Nestled amongst the ruins of it's former glory. The largely victorian exterior of the surviving part contains some of the countries finest Norman church architecture.

The Dissolution and the Cathedral foundation

At the dissolution in 1538 the St Werburgh's abbey was surrendered to the crown and St Werburgh's shrine destroyed. In 1541 the abbey became the Church of England cathedral of the newly formed Chester diocese. The second monastic abbey of six to be reopened. Newly rededicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin, and endowed with 9 manors and most of the other Cheshire property of the former St Werburgh's abbey. The last abbot of the abbey, Thomas Clarke became the dean of the newly formed cathedral and 4 monks became prebendaries (canon) of the new church. The diocese covered Cheshire, Lancashire and the Richmond archdeaconry, previously of York that occupied an area from Richmond to northern Lancashire and southern Cumbria.

For the first 300 years of it's existence the church suffered from a lack of funds. Frequently repairs were undertaken when they became essential. At the dissolution the abbey's annual income had been assessed at £1,003 5s 11d. In 1551 church plate and bells had to be sold to pay for repairs to the fabric. In 1553 the dean and two prebendaries were committed to the Fleet prison, London, for allegedly removing iron and lead from the cathedral roof. Most of the cathedral's income being spent on the salaries of servants and taxes to the crown (First fruits and tenths: Originally paid to Rome it was a levy on clergy by which they had to pay a portion of their first years salary and subsequently a tenth annually to the crown.). In 1578 it is alleged that the dean and chapter demolished some buildings and that lead, glass and slate were missing. There was also tension between the cathedral and the Chester corporation. The church holding large amounts of land within the city walls. In the 1570's the dean successfully opposed the building of a corn market near the Bishop's residence.

At the fall of Chester in the civil war the cathedral's possessions were seized and the cathedral abolished until the Reformation. Much of the medieval stained glass and a lot of the furnishings including the choir screen were destroyed by puritan troops.

The church is built like many buildings in Cheshire of red sandstone a rock easily carved but liable to weathering. The type of sandstone used by the monks was particularly prone and unlike the harder wearing rock employed by the Romans in the building of the wall the material used in the fabric of the cathedral meant that continual maintenance was required. Outcrops of this rock can be found throughout Chester, Cheshire and the Wirral. A particularly fine example can be found at Thor's Rock near Heswall and on the southern bank of the Dee in Edgar's Field, Chester. Where are the remains of Roman stone quarrying and the Minerva shrine.

By the 19th century the cathedral fabric was in need of extensive restoration. Thomas Harrison, architect of the Grosvenor bridge and the range of buildings along St Werbugh's Street restored the south transept in 1818-1820. But the most substantial work was undertaken under the guidance of George Gilbert Scott in 1868-1876. At a cost of £90,000 the turrets, crenellations, gargoyles and flying buttresses are a result of George Gilbert Scott's Gothic revivalist view of the medieval church. His proposal to build a spire on top of the central tower was rejected and at the time their was disquiet over what appeared to be a reinterpretation of the church structure rather than a restoration of the existing fabric. Scott's work included esternal and internal work. Including the creation of a new choir screen replacing the one that had been destroyed during the civil war. George Gilbert Scott is probably best known as the designer of the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, London, now restored, and the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park.

In 1882 further work was completed by Sir Arthur Blomfield including the reconstruction of St Werburgh's shrine in the Lady Chapel where it can still be seen. The cloisters were restored and the east window in the refectory and the rood screen designed by Giles Gilbert Scott (grandson of George), architect of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral and the creator of the traditional British red telephone box, between 1911 and 1913. And in 1939 F. H. Crossley rebuilt the refectory roof.

In 1973-1975 a separate bell tower designed, by George Pace, was constructed after it was found to be too expensive and difficult to replace the dilapidated bell mechanism and bells that had lived in the central tower. Ten of the bells from the cathedral were recast as ring of twelve bells and first rung in 1975. Greatly influenced by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Pace had a passion for combining modern with the conservative in his work whiich is ably demonstrated in this building. A very modern construction with hints of the medieval.

St. Werburgh

Daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia and St Ermenilda, born in Stone, Staffordshire. Descended from a maternal line of canonised nobility. At a time when local Bishops could canonise people, dead or alive. And who frequently used this power as part of the relationship between nobility and church. She spent much of her life as a nun and was the fourth and last Abbess of the convent at Ely, Cambridgeshire, succeeding her mother in the role. The fourth Abbess to be canonised. The convent at Ely, founded by her great aunt St Etheldra in 673, was destroyed by Danish Vikings in 870 . St Werburgh was commissioned by her uncle King Aethelred, who succeeded her father to the the throne in 675, to reform the Mercian monasteries and to found new ones under his patronage. She is said to have founded the convents of Trentham and Hanbury in Staffordshire, and Weedon in Northamptonshire.

In order to deflect conflict among those who venerated her she was determined to be buried at Hanbury upon her death. But it was in Trentham that she died in 699. After some altercation the body was eventually interred in Hanbury where a number of "miraculous" cures were associated with the saints tomb. After 9 years the remains were moved to a more conspicuous location in the church. The body was found to be remarkably preserved. A sign deemed so divine that it is said to have influenced Werburgh's brother Coenred, who had succeeded Aethelred to the throne of Mercia in 704, to abandon his secular life for religious orders. Here the tomb remained for 160 years, a place of pilgrimage and veneration. But with the threat from Viking raiders in the 9th century. The saints shrine was relocated to the protection of the church of St Peter and St Paul within the city walls of Chester in 875. And in 975 this church was rededicated to St Werburgh and St Oswald.

The presence of St Werburgh's remains in the city became associated with many fortunate events. The saint became to be seen as the protector and patron saint of the city and the cult of St Werburgh became lucrative for the monks. A number of fires destroyed parts of the city within the walls but the church remained unscathed and the saints presence is associated with the unsuccessful attempt by the Welsh under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn to besiege the city in the 11th century.

In 1340 the saints remains were housed within an ornate shrine which at the time of the dissolution was savagely destroyed, the stone works and remains scattered. Today the shrine has been reassembled from those parts that could be retrieved. Although the saints bones have never been recovered.

St Werburgh is often portrayed with a goose a representation derived from a story of an event that is said to have taken place at the convent at Weedon. There are several versions of this story but all of them include the resurrection of a goose.

A flock of geese that had been decimating the crops of the convent was bidden by the steward, on the abbesses instruction, to enter a house, where they were locked up for the night in punishment. This order they dutifully obeyed, heads hung low. But the steward took one of their number to eat. In the morning the saint admonished the geese for their destruction of the crops and released them. But they were not happy and the saint divined that one of their number was missing. She summoned the steward and resurrected the cooked goose. The flock bowed to the lady and flew away. And it is said that geese have never subsequently been seen in Weedon.

St Oswald

A Northumbrian king Oswald had fought against the Mercians under Penda (Aethelred's father), and had been killed by them at the Battle of Maserfield in 641 or 642, now identified with Oswestry (Oswald's Tree), Shropshire.

The veneration of St Oswald is reliant heavily on the manner of his death. Although he is perceived as a very religious man. Having promoted the adoption of the Christian faith within his kingdom. A tree is said to have grown and spring erupted from the ground where an arm of the dismembered body was dropped by a crow as it fled the battle field. At this spot many miracles are said to have taken place. The cult of St Oswald grew with support from the influential Hexham monastery in Northumberland and spread throughout Europe. Killed in battle fighting the pagan Penda of Mercia. The Christian Oswald, King of Northumberland is seen through the centuries as a royal martyr. A king who did much to Christianise Northumberland.

The Consistory Court

This is a curious survival of an ecclesiastical court. The furniture dates from the 16th century and was originally located in the Lady Chapel. It was positioned beneath the south west tower in 1636. A unique example of church influence. The court was used for cases of libel, slander and the proving of wills as well church discipline. Jurisdiction over wills was held by the church from the establishment of the cathedral until 1858. When the Court of Probate Act transferred responsibility to the civil Court of Probate

In the Medieval period the ecclesiastical courts had powers equal to that of the crown. Including that of capital punishment. It was in the Lady Chapel that George Marsh from Bolton was condemned to death by the then Bishop George Coats for preaching the doctrine of Martin Luther and the protestant faith. Refusing to recant his beliefs he was burned at the stake at Chester's place of execution in Boughton in 1555. His ashes subsequently buried by his followers in St Giles Graveyard, Boughton. A memorial now stands by the A51 in Boughton.

Abbey Square

Lying on the northern side of the cathedral is a tranquil secluded square of Georgian brick built houses. Now largely occupied by businesses. These buildings were erected in the mid 18th century for the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral on an area that had been occupied by the kitchen's, bakehouse and brewery of the old abbey. Prior to the Georgian restyling the area behind the Abbey Gateway had enjoyed a measure of independence of city regulation and all manner of business was transacted here.

The Bishop's Palace originally occupied an area now occupied by Barclay's Bank in the south west corner. The Bishop's house is now behind high walls on the north eastern side of the square.

Kaleyard Gate

At the eastern end of Abbey Street that runs eastward from the square to the city wall is the Kaleyard Gate. This breach in the city wall was opened up to allow passage of monks from the abbey to their gardens beyond the eat wall. Permission was given on condition that the gate be closed and secured at curfew every evening and in times of danger and that it would not allow the passage of a man on horse back. Until recently the cathedral authorities have followed the tradition of locking the gate at night and the cathedral still rings the curfew bell, still housed in the central tower at 8.45 every evening.

Links

• Chester Cathedral
• St John the Baptist Church

The Rows in Chester are a unique feature of the shopping experience in the city centre dating back more than eight hundred years. Over the centuries they have evolved to become an essential part of any Chester visit. With two levels of shops on all of the main city centre thoroughfares there is a plethora of shopping opportunities as well as a fascinating piece of city history to explore.

Access

The upper gallery of the rows is accessed from steps that can be found at intervals along the street. Some of these are quite steep. Level access can be gained to all Row galleries mostly from the higher ground to the rear. Bridge Street Eastern and Eastgate Street southern rows can be accessed from the Grosvenor shopping centre. Eastgate Streets northern rows via Godstall Lane; a pedestrian passageway with shops and cafés running from St Werburgh's Street opposite the Cathedral. Bridge Streets western rows and Watergate Street south rows can be reached from a ramp running along Pierpoint Lane which can be found near the end of the pedestrianised area of the City centre. The Dewa Roman experience can also be found along this lane.. Watergate Street's northern rows can be reached from Crook Street.

Introduction

Rows are shop units with living accommodation above, usually gathered together in association with like tradesmen or trade guild members, and although other cities in England have rows none have the charm and fascination of those in Chester. Built along the four main city centre thoroughfares that follow the pattern of the original Roman forts street layout. Little is known of the origin of Chester's Rows but their peculiarity is that the living accommodation starts on the second floor with two levels of shops beneath with a public walkway on the first floor level.

The ground floor shops are accessed from street level, but running across the top of these street level shops is a walk way and set back from the street frontage are a second set of shop windows. Today some of the establishments maintain both upper and lower shop units, but on most sections of the rows different merchants can be found on lower and upper floors. Steps lead from street to first floor at regular intervals and the living accommodation above is supported by columns every 15 feet (4 metres) or so.

The upper premises on the rows to be found on Eastgate Street are so set back that in places some shops have large display units between the shop front and the street frontage. This is particularly evident on the rows on the northern side of the street where additional shops and cafés occupy the space between walkway and street frontage. This row has sometimes been called “Dark Row” and this section of Row is poorly served by natural light although the cafés on this level are open to the street.

Origins

The land behind Row buildings is at first floor level. It has been suggested that this is because the debris from demolished buildings from previous city centre occupation was more thoroughly cleared along the main streets. Here was the most valuable commercial real-estate in post Conquest Chester. Since much of the land within the walls at this time was in the hands of religious foundations and land for commercial development was as a consequence at a premium. The space to accommodate the burgeoning city economy was severely restricted and the Chester Rows were to be the solution.

One view is that buildings erected after the Roman occupation were wooden structures with posts dug into the Roman debris. These would have featured a shop with a hall behind and a courtyard to the rear. Consequently these buildings sitting on land higher than street level would have required a pathway to run along in front of them. This is explanation resolves the question of how this intriguing feature of Chester came about without a general town development plan. It would allow for the evolution of a system without disruption to everyday life.

They may have developed under the guidance of merchant guilds since most of the rows are often associated with singular trades. For a long period the Rows walkways were regarded as part of the private property through which they passed. There is no legal document indicating that the rows were regarded as a public right of way until the 17th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Rows, nominally under the control of the city corporation, were still the property of the individual merchants. These merchants who were responsible for the upkeep of the right of way, the railings and the steps.

Middle Ages

Edward 1st endeavour to subjugate the Northern Welsh had brought great wealth into the city. Chester was the hub from which materials, armament, soldiers, administrators and craftsmen were distributed amongst the growing castle building projects. The largest castle building enterprise in British history. During this prosperous period the Rows emerged gradually. The need for further space led to the excavation of the undercrofts in the rubble beneath the buildings with support for the pathway and building above and the addition living accommodation above the original structure. On the first floor was a shop fronting with the walkway that crossing the top of the undercroft with accommodation rising above it. Initially these undercrofts may not all have opened onto the street but as commerce grew along the street level most would have developed in this way. There is an example of this open row level gangway on the western side of Lower Bridge Street where the upper floors were never expanded over.

These under-crofts carried stallboards, sloping canopies under which merchants could set up stalls to sell their wears outside there under-croft storage on the street side. These stallboards were the beginning of encroachment onto the public highway. Over time they expanded their living accommodation over the galleries running along the roofs of the undercrofts and the stallboards, supporting them on columns that went down to the street. Encouraged by the city corporation who could raise rents on the land that such developments occupied. Eventually the stall areas became enclosed as shops. These stall boards can be seen today between the gallery rows and the street frontage. There was an increasing trend to build shops on top of the stallboards themselves so that the rows became increasingly dark and uninviting places to be. The rows are considered to have reached their fullest development in the middle of the 14th century.

Civil War

With the plague years of the middle ages the cities prosperity declined and the, until now evolving nature of the rows stopped. It wasn't until after the Civil War in the late 16^th century that further development took place. Some buildings were altered and some demolished and rebuilt by their wealthy owners. In some places larger buildings were built and in some places the rows became blocked in by their owners because they wished for greater privacy. This is particularly evident in Lower Bridge Street where small sections of row survive running between sections that have either been in filled or the original building replaced without conforming to the row principle.

The enclosure or the rows in lower bridge street was inspired by the actions of Sir Richard Grosvenor during the siege of Chester, in the Civil War. He petitioned to enclose the section of row running past his town house where he had moved his family in order to protect them within the city walls. As a leading Royalist his petition was granted. The house can be found at the top of Lower Bridge Street on the western side. Now the Falcon public house, evidence of what was once the row and the columns that supported the upstairs can be seen in the front. Once a break had been made others argued that the row level was useless as a public right of way.

The Georgians

During the Siege of Chester in 1645 a lot of the rows in Watergate Street and Eastgate Street were destroyed by bombardment. After the restoration in the 1660's Chester became a magnet for the wealthy and in the Georgian period Chester became a fashionable location to live and for social entertainment. At the same time as The Groves and The Walls were being developed as promenades many wealthy families built or remodelled town houses in the City Centre, often replacing or combining multiple buildings into one residence. In Lower Bridge Street, Bridge House and Park House replaced Medieval Rows buildings and nearer the cross Rows buildings were combined and re-fronted in brick, maintaining the Rows but in a new Classical style.

Booth's Mansion Watergate Street

In Booths mansion on Watergate Street two Medieval row buildings became one large town residence for George Booth of Dunham Massey, later 2nd Earl of Warrington. (George Booth was fined for encroaching upon the street having built this house façade angled to look slightly south east so that it could be more readily seen from The Cross)

The Victorians

In 19th century the adoption of the Gothic style in fashionable architecture and with it in Chester in particular the revival of half timbered building meant that much of the centre we see today is Victorian rather than Medieval. Most of this Victorian rebuilding respected the row concept, now seen as a desirable relic from a more romantic age. The exception being in Northgate Street where Shoemakers row was replaced by a street level row in 1909 designed by the architect John Douglas, who also designed the lodges in Grosvenor park, most of the estate buildings on the Grosvenor estate and the Eastgate Clock as well as many other buildings within Chester and beyond. Many of these Victorian additions carry interesting detail. Some have coats of arms and carved quotations whilst others carry wooden sculptures. Shoemakers row carries a lot of very fine detail and a number of sculptures, as does the row of revival buildings along the eastern side of St Werburgh's Street, also designed by John Douglas.

In the 1820's Browns Department store was built in Greek Revival style on the southern side of Eastgate Street. 1n the 1850's the store expanded. The architect Thomas M Penson, a leading advocate of the half timbered revival, adopted a Gothic styled sandstone façade for the new building. Reflecting the stonework of the Medieval under-croft over which it was built. The under-croft now forms part of The Crypt café beneath the shop. At the same he opened up the old row into a more light and airy first floor promenade with display units between the row and the street. Penson also designed the Grosvenor Hotel and other revival style buildings in Eastgate Street.

In 1859 a controversial Neo-Classical building by George Williams was built to house the headquarters of then Dixon and Wardell's Chester Bank. This building, opposite the Brown's development blocked off the northern Eastgate Row. The Row alteration being paid for by the gift of a strip of land for the widening of St Werburgh's Street.

Development in the lower part of Watergate Street led to the loss of parts of the rows on the northern side of the street but modern development on the southern side has respected the Row.

Today

The Rows in Chester today are a delightful place to eat, drink and shop. Within the square of Rows buildings fronted by Eastgate Street and Bridge Street and with Pepper Street to the south is The Mall or Grosvenor Shopping centre which as ad Edwardian Arcade at the Bridge Street end and more modern extension to the other two streets.

The main streets are pedestrianised Eastgate Street and Northgate Street all of the day, except for people needing access to city centre hotels and delivery vehicles. Bridge Street and Watergate Streets are closed to traffic from 8 am until 6pm.

They are home to a variety of eateries. Along Watergate Street at both street and row level there are number of bars, restaurants and cafés. The streets through the main part of the city centre are devoted to pedestrians and many of the cafés offer al fresco eating facilities. On the northern side of Eastgate Street you can sit on the row itself and watch passers by from the Rows Café.

For more pictures of Chester's rows go to the Chester Rows photograph gallery