Wednesday 29 February 2012

The Falcon I

At the crossroads of Bridge, Lower Bridge, Pepper and Grosvenor Streets stands the Falcon. Now a pub, it had an early medieval hall, and a later larger hall. The row at the front of it started a fashion for enclosure when it was the town house of Sir Richard Grosvenor during the Civil War. The City Council dare not refuse such a rich and powerful Royalist when he complained that the house was 'too little to receive his family'.



Monday 27 February 2012

Old King's Head I

This 17th century building is on the site of the earliest recorded stone house in Chester. In 1208, Peter the Clerk, a chief officer of Earl Ranulph III lived here. Peter was the forerunner of the later mayors - he was allowed to keep his own court and was granted a fishing boat on the Dee above the weir. He bought the house from John Gunde and Agnes Outhcarle, both names of Scandinavian origin, and this is the area of Chester where the Viking settlement would have been.




Living History

Living history and re-enactment often takes place around Chester. The video below shows the Lion Rampant group of re-enactors at Beeston Castle, not far outside Chester. I am told they will probably be there again on St George's Day (23rd April) this year, but check the Beeston Castle website for more information.



Sunday 26 February 2012

The Shot Tower II

New plans are being submitted for the Shot Tower, comprising a residential (53 apartments) and commercial (bars, cafes and restaurants) development, plus a small visitor centre to interpret the heritage of the site. It was originally built to supply shot for the British Forces in the Napoleonic Wars, and is the highest structure in Chester. There are hopes that work might be started this summer.



Saturday 25 February 2012

Grosvenor Museum - Period House Kitchen

The period house in the Grosvenor Museum contains a kitchen including the original range from the house (which is actually 20 Castle Street, backing onto the museum). From the documentation about the period house:

This middle class kitchen from 1900 seems very basic compared to modern kitchens, yet it has the latest appliances of the day. All the work in the kitchen was done at a large wooden table, set in the middle of the room. The surface was carefully scrubbed down after each use. Crockery was usually stored on the open shelves of a large wooden dresser, with table linen in the drawers below. Food was kept in the pantry, a large room off the kitchen. Fresh food was generally stored on stone or marble shelves to keep it cool. Food was cooked over an open fire until the invention of the kitchen range in 1770. Made of cast iron, the range consisted of a raised open fire with ovens at the side. Hooks and cranes were used to hang pots over the flames. Items were roasted in front of the fire on a spit, with a large tin underneath to catch the fat. To prevent one side from becoming overdone, either a clockwork motor or a servant boy turned the spit. In the 1870’s, closed ranges were developed, with an enclosed fire. This meant that all the heat and gases were trapped inside the range, leading to a better, more even temperature. The kitchen range was not only used for cooking food. Before the invention of piped circulating hot water, all the hot water for the household’s cooking and washing needs had to be heated on the range. It was then carried upstairs, when needed, in special cans. Few labour saving devices can be found in a kitchen before 1900. All the work was done by servants which were in plentiful supply. The lady of the house rarely entered the kitchen. Large houses were staffed with a team of servants.


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Friday 24 February 2012

The New Cut

This straight section of the River Dee arose from engineering works undertaken in the 1730s to improve navigation between Chester and the open sea. A channel was cut through the marshes in an attempt to solve the problem of silt and shifting sandbanks in the estuary. It also led to the creation of Sealand, as land reclaimed from the sea.

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Thursday 23 February 2012

The Naming of the Rows

In Chester, the main streets are called, for example, Eastgate Street, Watergate Street, etc., and the upper parts of these streets, or walkways, are called Eastgate Row, Watergate Row, etc. However, this was not always so, and sections of both the streets and rows were once called after the professions that mainly occupied them. The section of Bridge Street Row opposite that shown in the photo was once called Scotch Row, and the row further down was referred to as Corvisors Row, and later became Flax Row.



Wednesday 22 February 2012

Overleigh House

There is a house in Overleigh which I have long coveted. It stands up on a sandstone outcrop, high above the road, and is secluded in its gardens. It looks a very secretive house, and I often wonder about the people who live there. The main problem with the house? - It doesn't have the most lively of neighbours, as it overlooks the cemetery.


Monday 20 February 2012

Bagpipolorum

What is a Bagpipolorum? It's in aid of the first international Bagpipe Day, features several different types  of bagpipes, and is happening in St Peter's Church. Sound interesting? Then get down there!


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Window Taxes

If you look carefully in the photo below you will spot a bricked-up and painted-on window (top left above the Thomas C. Adams sign). This probably dates from the days of window taxes, a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. You can find out more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax


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Saturday 18 February 2012

Abbey Square II

Down in Abbey Square, the Refectory was having its roof fixed, or maybe some cabling done, the other day. The houses to the left of the Refectory (with the stained glass) are owned by the Cathedral, but are rented out to non-clergy. They were built by Bishop John Bridgeman in 1626.


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Friday 17 February 2012

King Charles (or Phoenix) Tower II

The phoenix carving on the front of the tower is the symbol of the Painters, Glaziers, Embroiderers and Stationers Company, who used to hold their meetings in the upper storey of the tower (there can't have been many of them, it's pretty small up there). The tower was strewn with rushes and decorated with garlands of flowers on the Festival of St Luke in October, for the annual meeting of the guild.




Thursday 16 February 2012

St Olave's Church

Down on Lower Bridge Street is the deconsecrated church of St Olave (or Olaf). Restores in the 19th century, the building dates to before the Norman Conquest and reflects the Scandinavian influence in the city, from the days when England was partly under Danelaw. There was evidence of a Scandinavian moneyers directly opposite this building.




Wednesday 15 February 2012

Scout Hut

When the council decided to re-develop the Earl's Port area, there was a very tatty and shabby scout hut standing in the way, so to clear the way for re-development to happen the council offered to build a new scout hut, a couple of hundred metres away from where the old one stood. The new one is much lovelier than the old, was designed to echo the maritime connections of the area, and can even be hired for parties.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Deanery Field

The banks inside the Walls around the Deanery Field are the remains of first century Roman turf walls, from the time when Chester defences were built of wood and turf, rather than stone. Nowadays a game of cricket is more likely on the Deanery Field, and more or less centre of the photo is the roller used for flattening the crease. To the right of it is Deanery Cottage, one of the many properties owned by the Cathedral.





Monday 13 February 2012

Stalled Building Projects

Chester, like so many other places in the current recession, has many stalled building projects. This crane is on what used to be the national bus station, and has not moved for many a month.




Sunday 12 February 2012

Grosvenor Park - St Marys Nunnery Arch

St Marys Nunnery used to own land that stretched from the arch in the wall near the castle all the way to Black Friars, and they had a convent and gardens on it. The nuns were very powerful, the prioress holding her own court, and the nuns and their tenants being exempt from various taxes and serving on juries and inquisitions. They were entitled to supplies of timber from Shotwick Royal Park, and could have their corn ground free of charge at the Dee Mills. In the year 1281, in order to gain access to the river, the nuns were granted charters that stated:

1. "A free exit of the water from their garden, by the middle of the land which Philip the Clerk, citzen of Chester, had under the wall of the city, opposite the water of Dee, by the garden of Robert Mercener, so that he and his heirs incurred no damage and were not hindered in ploughing and sowing."
2. "A way across the croft which the same Philip the clerk had, under the wall of the city, opposite the water of Dee, by the Quarry, to be eight feet in breadth outside the ditch by his garden, and to extend to the wall of the city to Eya- that is, the Roodee."

The arch was moved to Grosvenor Park in 1871, before that it formed an entrance to the ruins at St John's Church.

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Saturday 11 February 2012

Weathervanes

All over the city centre I keep seeing the same, or very similar, weathervanes on top of many of the Thomas Harrison-designed buildings. To me they look like highly stylised Viking ships. What do you think?







Friday 10 February 2012

Grosvenor Park - St Michaels (or Bridgets) Arch

In the south-western corner of Grosvenor Park there are complex arches which are said to have been moved here in 1897. I have seen two differing versions of where they came from. The first says that it is the porch of St Michaels Church (now the Heritage Centre), and the second says that it came from St Bridgets Church and Benedictine Nunnery, which was directly across the road from St Michaels, but is now long gone.






Thursday 9 February 2012

Misleading Dates

On the front of Tudor House is the sign seen below, saying that it was built in 1503. However, the date came from a beam in which the second digit was smudged. Dendrochronological analysis confirms a date within the range 1592 to 1623, so the date is much more likely to be 1603, and its' earliness exaggerated in a bid to be 'the oldest building'.



Wednesday 8 February 2012

Gamul Place

Down on Lower Bridge Street, past the Brewery Tap (also known as Gamul House), is a narrow passageway with a discreet sign - Gamul Place. Named, I guess, after  Sir Francis Gamul, a Royalist supporter and colonel of the town guard, it leads to a small courtyard of houses. Follow a narrow pathway around to your left and it leads to a small green space, well hidden behind all the houses.



Tuesday 7 February 2012

Kash/Cocoa Rooms

Kash, at the junction of Station Rd, Hoole Rd and Brook St, was once Cocoa Rooms, which were devised by the Quakers to attempt to keep working men out of pubs and gin palaces. Kash is now somewhere where the focus is firmly on beer - they have their own microbrewery, though not on the premises.



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Monday 6 February 2012

Sunday 5 February 2012

Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley, author of the Water Babies, was founder and first President of the Chester Natural Sciences Society, which founded the Grosvenor Museum in 1885. He lived in this house in Abbey Square whilst he was Canon of Chester Cathedral.


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Saturday 4 February 2012

Fire Marks

Around Chester there are still a few surviving fire marks, which were issued by insurance companies. For most of the 18th century, each insurance company maintained its own fire brigade, which extinguished fires in those buildings insured by the company and, in return for a fee to be paid later, in buildings insured by other companies. By 1825, fire marks served more as advertisements than as useful identifying marks; some insurance companies no longer issued fire marks, and those that did sometimes left them up after a policy had expired. This one is on a house in Abbey Square, and was issued by the Sun Assurance Company.


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Friday 3 February 2012

Earl's Port Canal Bridge

Down where the Shropshire Union Canal joins the River Dee a new bridge has been built over the Canal, which can be lifted to allow narrow boats to pass through the lock and out onto the river. At very high tides they can even go upstream and over the weir, because of their very shallow draft.


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