Chester...a brief history

The Romans established a fortress hereabouts in AD76 and named it Deva, an old Celtic word meaning ‘goddess of the waters’. Many artefacts from that time can still be seen: particulary the city walls (part original Roman) and the remains, currently being archeologically examined, of a large 1st century, 8000-seater, amphitheatre.

The Romans withdrew from Britain at the end of the 4th century. The country became feudal and Chester lay derelict for four centuries. Help was at hand: the Danes inhabited the town in the 9th century, to be ousted by the Saxons in the 10th century, who rebuilt the town, gave it the name Ceaster (derived from the Latin for camp, Castra) and stoically defended it against the raping and pillaging Vikings.

An hotelier in those times must have been multi-lingual, for in 1070 Chester was the last town in England to succumb to the Norman invasion. Their ‘supremo’, William the Conqueror, granted land and the title of the Earl of Chester to Hugh Lupus, the ancestor of the current Duke of Westminster. The Earldom reverted to the crown in AD 1237 and is now one of the many titles of the heir to the British throne.

Chester became involved in the civil wars of Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, against the Crown. King Charles 1st, later to suffer the executioner’s sharpness, reviewed his troops, on their way to defeat at the battle of Rowton Moor in 1645, from a point on the City Walls: now known as King Charles’ tower.

Other well known features are: the magnificent Cathedral, dedicated to St Werburgh, which dates back to 1092, the double-tiered shopping outlets; the ‘Rows’, dating from the 13th century, and the rather newer Victorian ‘black and white’ buildings based on the timber framed versions of some two centuries earlier, of which a few examples remain.

Chester has a historic racecourse on the Roodee (island of the cross) with race meetings beginning in 1539 replacing ‘fautebal’, which had been banned in 1533 because of ‘aggressive behaviour’

Perhaps the second most photographed clock in the world, after Big Ben, is the Eastgate Clock, erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s diamond Jubilee in 1897. Resist taking your own version if you can!

Today, Chester is a thriving tourist, business and shopping destination. Its attraction being its history, friendliness and charm.