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!

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

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More Red Sandstone

Red sandstone being very easy to cut has an interesting side-effect - it is easy to scratch or hollow out. Hence the pigeon below being able to find a nice hidey-hole in the Old Dee Bridge, and the game of Nine Men's Morris that someone scored at the base of a pillar in the Baptistry of the Cathedral - it must have been a very boring sermon...

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Red Sandstone

Chester sits on an outcrop of rock, in the middle of what was once a sea, hence the proliferation of salt mines in Cheshire. The local stone is red sandstone, and when the Romans arrived they opened up a quarry in Edgars' field, and Chester was largely built from it. Red sandstone is very easy to cut, but unfortunately this means that it is also very friable and wears away relatively quickly. In the photo below you can see part of the repairs to Morgan's Mount, which was constructed in 1645 - the lower blocks of stone have had to be replaced, those above are original.

See our Chester self-catering serviced apartment at Black Diamond Park

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