Halloween

Chester has laid claim to the title of 'England's Most Haunted City', and certainly there are a legion of ghost stories surrounding the city. You can read a list of them here (scroll down to see them all): http://www.hauntedchester.com/

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Queen's School II

The Queen's School has a reputation for being one of the best girl's schools in the country. It has provided Chester with its' first female solicitor, first lady mayor, first woman to receive the freedom of the city, and the first woman president of the Freemen and Guilds. You can find out more about it here: http://www.queens.cheshire.sch.uk/

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Queen's School I

The Queen's School stands by the city walls, but was originally at '100 Watergate Flags' - now the corner of City Walls Road and Watergate Street. It soon became necessary to move to somewhere larger, and the Duke of Westminster donated the current site and £500 towards building costs. The new building was designed by E. A. Ould, a pupil of John Douglas, and is made from red brick in Tudor Gothic style, with terracotta stonework from Ruabon. I am told that there is a  terracotta appreciation society who pay regular visits to admire the brickwork.

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St John's Rectory

Originally the Rectory for St John's church, this was sold off and used initially as a club, then later as offices. It has a beautiful outlook, and gardens tumbling down to the river, and would still make someone a very fine residence if that were possible. It stands right next to the church, and has an address of 3 Vicars Lane.

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Chester CAMRA Beer Festival

To the beer festival this evening, which was absolutely heaving with people. Some of them were even women. Or Vikings. A good event, but a bit too crowded for my taste. Held in the Guild Hall, it's on again tomorrow afternoon and evening, when it might be quieter.

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Portuguese Wine-Tasting

Last night I went to a tasting of Portuguese wine at Chester Beer and Wine, and exceedingly entertaining it was, too. Danny Cameron was talking about the wines and the country and being both amusing and highly informative. The wines were good as well...

Chester Beer and Wine have more tasting evenings coming up, plus they do beginners wine courses. You can find out more about them here: http://chesterbeerandwine.co.uk/events.htm

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Cycle Routes

Over the last few years there have been increasing attempts to improve facilities for cyclists, and one of the new initiatives is an online cycle route planner for Chester. This allows you to plan a cycle route between any two places with the results presented as the Fastest/Quietest/Shortest Route.
CycleStreets will tell you the overall length of your trip and how long the trip will take at various cycling speeds and also displays ‘Quietness Rating’ for each route. You can try it out here: http://www.chestercyclecity.org/?cat=69

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102 Watergate Street

Close to the old Watergate that led out to the Port of Chester, is number 102 Watergate Street – the house where nobody wants to live.

For years the large, rambling Georgian house has been used as offices. Back in 1937, the building housed the drawing offices of the Chief Engineer for the army's Western Command. Staff were used to hearing inexplicable noises. But when two colleagues working late one night heard a long, drawn out rattling followed by a loud crash coming from a first floor room, their hair stood on end. A careful search, however, revealed nothing.

Several months later, a man dropped in unannounced to show his wife the “haunted house”. Staff were surprised when he told them he had been billeted there during World War I. Even then, he said, strange noises had come from the first floor room at the front. People eventually refused to sleep there. The house, he said, seemed destined to be offices forever.

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Nick Munro

Mick Munro is a local designer with an eponymous shop in Commonhall Street. A lot of his work is in pewter, and he has a new range out using the Olympics as his inspiration. The Chester Grosvenor also serve their magnificent afternoon teas in his teapots. You can take a better look at his work here: www.nickmunro.com

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Muringers and Murage

All around the walls, it seems, repairs are taking place. This is essential maintenance, and sometimes turns up interesting finds, for example the large collection of Roman tombstones on display in the Grosvenor Museum were originally used as infill in the walls, and were discovered when a section was taken down. Menders of the walls were called muringers, and murage was the (sometimes deeply unpopular) tax levied to pay for the repairs.

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Morgan's Mount Repairs

The repairs on Morgan's Mount have now been completed, and you can once again use the lookout on the top, with new, more secure, railings. Supervised by Donald Insall Architects, the job has been really well done, with the re-used gravestones left in situ.

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Bridgegate House

During the recent Heritage Open Days I went along to see Bridgegate House, described as 'A fine Georgian house and key historic building, now the offices of award winning conservation architects 'Donald Insall Associates'. Contains a particularly fine staircase. Guided tour of building and small exhibition of Donald Insall projects.'

Whilst the building was interesting, the talk from Tony Barton was even more so, and I shall be going off to see some of the interesting Insall projects that he talked to us about. You can read more about them here: http://www.insall-architects.co.uk/

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St Mary's Rectory

Across the street from St Mary's Centre, and literally a stones throw from Chester Castle, where criminals were executed until as late as 1883, is St Mary's Rectory.

According to two separate accounts from people who have worked at the Old Rectory, there is a small room at the top of the house that is always icy cold (you can see it above the archway in the photo). Its door bangs shut when there's no one near, and there's not a breath of wind. Why? Nobody knows. Whatever the cause, it's not something to dwell on as you walk down spooky, cobbled St Mary's Hill on a dark and moonlit night.

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Chester Cathedral Garth

The Cathedral cloister encloses a garth, in the middle of which is what is now a pond with waterlilies. The garth was originally a space where monks could get their exercise and grow herbs for food and medicine, and the pond occupies the site of the great stone cistern, built by the monks, to hold water piped in from a spring in Christleton. The statue was added in 1992, is by Stephen Broadbent, and represents Jesus and the woman of Samaria.

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St Mary's Centre - Graveyard

St Mary's was strongly linked with the Castle, where public executions were carried out, and contains many interesting burials - felons, plague victims, and casualties of the siege. In a corner of its churchyard are the unmarked graves of three witches found guilty at Chester Assizes of ‘magick and conjury' - and summarily hung by the neck until dead. Sadly, none of the gravestones are still standing, although some are in use in pathways.

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The Bars

Chester's walls were extended to their present extent in the 12th century, but population carried on growing, spreading out along Foregate Street, outside their curtilage. To give the population more protection a curtain wall was constructed in the early 13th century, enclosing an area from the south-east corner of the walls to the Kaleyards Gate. There were two gates in this wall; one where it crossed Cow Lane (now Frodsham Street) and another, the Bars Gate, at the end of Foregate Street. This gate survived until well into the 18th century, when it became an obstacle to traffic and was knocked down. The area shown below is still known as The Bars.

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St Mary's Centre - Oldfield Monument

Philip Oldfield died in 1616, and has a macabre alabaster monument. The latin inscription extols him for his distinction as a barrister, and for the work he did to improve the highways and bridges of Cheshire. His effigy lies on top of the tomb, turning towards you, right arm supporting his head, and on the face of the tomb, his skeleton is shown in exactly the same position. There are black 'purgatorial rails' protecting him.

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St Mary's Centre - Gamul Tomb

The Gamul Tomb has painted full-length effigies of Thomas Gamul (Recorder of Chester) and his wife Alice. Their three children who died in infancy are depicted carrying skulls on the side of the sarcophagus. Their surviving son, Francis, who lived in Gamul House in Lower Bridge Street, sits by his mother's knee meditating, an open bible in front of him.

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The Weighing Room

Chester Racecourse have opened their first off-site bar and restaurant, in Commonhall Street, just off Bridge Street. It is housed in a refurbished mill, and has a really interesting menu - you can pick a selection of three small dishes for just a tenner - ideal for people like me who like to try everything.

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St Mary's Centre - Roof

St Mary's-on-the-Hill, as this church was once known, was created as the Castle church, and originally dates from about 1153. It is seldom open to the public nowadays, but is a fascinating place. It has a beautiful hammer beam roof with gilded bosses, which speculation, though not necessarily fact, says was moved here from Basingwerk Abbey.

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Oddfellows Hall II

The Oddfellows Hall was the first building in Chester to be built in the Classical style, and has been beautifully refurbished, adding a modern twist on a beautiful building, with an interior courtyard and a roof garden. You can read more about it here: http://www.oddfellowschester.com/

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Oddfellows Hall I

Oddfellows' Hall, originally Bridge House, is located at 16–24 Lower Bridge Street. It was originally a town house built in 1676 for Lady Mary Calverley, who petitioned the City Assembly for permission to demolish her house, which contained a section of the Chester Rows, and replace it with a new house. This was granted, but as it led to the loss of a portion of the Rows she was fined £20 (£2,700 as of 2012). Nowadays, it has become a boutique hotel, of which more later.

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Branded

Handels' Court Art Gallery has a new exhibition on currently, all about branding. I was told that originally they wanted to do something with an Olympic theme, but fell foul of branding, so decided to use that as a theme instead. On now, so get along and have a look!

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Autumn

Autumn is in the air, the leaves are turning, and the first frost has happened. Apples, pears, and quinces need picking, though there are less of them this year, and we are looking forward to a weekend of preparing the allotment and garden for the winter to come.

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Cathedral Refectory Graffiti

When Henry VIII carried out the dissolution of St Werburgh's Abbey, which has now become the Cathedral, the statutes provided that there should be  a school for "24 poor and friendless boys between the ages of 9 and 15". The School was housed in the Refectory for most of the next 400 years until 1869. The school was variously called "The Free School" and "The Grammar School". If you go and look in the Refectory, you can still see the graffiti left by some of those boys.

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Barbour Open In Chester

A new Barbour shop has opened up in St Werburgh St, in the old SPCK premises, which had been empty for a very long time. You can now go and shop for wax jackets and quilted gilets to your hearts content. Best of all, though, I liked this cape: http://www.barbour.com/womens-clothing/jackets-coats/wax/barbour-gold-label/fern-cape - perfect for festival-going!

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