Chester Cathedral

I don't think I ever went into Chester Cathedral when I was last in Chester - which must have been the 1970s, which is a fairly scary thought. I certainly didn't remember the Addleshaw Tower, which was built in 1974 to house the bells.

It's well worth visiting. One of the first things I came across was the Consistory Court, which used to be used to try cases pertaining to the Church, including accusations of slander. It's arranged round a big table, with benches on each side, a witness stand, seat for the judge, and a seat perched high on one corner like an umpire at a tennis match. All this enclosed with a wooden partition. I think it's unique in the country.

I also loved the Abbot's Chapel, which became the Bishop's Chapel at the Reformation, accessed up spiral tower stairs.
Heading towards the East end, I passed through the Quire, with the magnificent misericords. Then I came to an area with a lectern, and seals of the saints in the tiling of the floor, which made me grin delightedly. This is exactly what Katherine Kurtz was describing when she wrote Deryni Rising - the climactic magical battle in the cathedral depends on the young King finding the seal of St Camber in the tiled floor to trigger his powers.
I also lit a candle to St. Werburgh, the patron saint of the cathedral - the shrine was rebuilt in the 19thC after being damaged at the Reformation. St Werburgh was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia and St Ermenilda, and her grandmother was St Sexburga, Queen of Kent. She became a nun, and was put in charge of all the convents of Mercia. Her most famous miracle is of bringing her pet goose back to life when it had been killed for the table (I suspect she also sacked the steward responsible!). She died around 700AD.

While strolling round the cloisters, I was approached by two young school children (with teacher in tow), who were handing out leaflets for a sale they were putting on.
This was in the Chapter Room, where they'd laid out clocks made from an old LP, splattered with paint and fitted with a clock mechanism, and painted mugs. There were a few other, smaller gifts as well. I asked how the clocks had been made, and a little boy gave me a detailed description of how they had put the records on a turntable, powered by an exercise bike, which they had then squirted paint onto. I remember making pictures like that at school fetes. They seemed to have had great fun making the clocks.
All this was to raise money for Passion For Learning - they were also looking for volunteers to join the team, to spend between one and three hours a week working with kids to make learning fun, and to help children reach their full potential.
I bought a mug. It's hideous.

The cathedral café is in the medieval refectory, with a magnificent lectern built into the wall, with stairs, for the monk doing the reading while the rest of the brothers ate.
And back to the gift shop, which was full of very beautiful things (and they already had the Christmas stock on display) but very little which was specific to that particular cathedral. I had to ask the staff if they had anything about St Werburgh, and all they could come up with was a postcard.

Walking Round Chester

From the riverside, I walked along the wall walk as far as the racecourse (once the Roman quayside), and around Chester Castle, which was extensively rebuilt to house the Shire Hall, now the Crown Courts, and the headquarters of the Cheshire Regiment - the Regimental Museum is still there, along with what is left of the medieval castle.

I'd done enough wall walking for a bit, so I followed the main road back into the centre of Chester to explore the Rows. These are unique to Chester, with a raised and covered walkway going over the top of the ground floor level of shops, and with the first floor shops set back.
Right in the centre of Chester, by the crossroads, is the Victoria pub, where I stopped for a welcome half of Adnams. There was a busker with a guitar outside, and further along one of the streets was a violinist (both very good). At one point, they swapped their pitches for the rest of the afternoon.

Moving on to the square, where the Roman forum once was - and the remains of the Legionary strong room are displayed down the side of the market hall. This was part of the decoration at the end of the Rows nearest the square:

Also in the square, this gift from Chester Zoo:

And then more walking around the Walls until I came to the Cathedral.
On the green near the Cathedral there was a falconry display going on - I watched for a bit beside the King Charles Tower.

Chester - St John's Church

Just by the Roman amphitheatre is a church which claims to be the original cathedral for Chester, built somewhere in the 4thC (or possibly even earlier!), and later being rebuilt in stone to become the Saxon minster for Chester. At that time, the amphitheatre was being used as some sort of fortified residence, with buildings in the arena and most of the entrances blocked up. It is, of course, outside the City walls.

These are some of the ruins at the east end - I was too early to go inside the church, which opens at 10am. The church was reduced in size at the Reformation, and this bit was converted into Tudor flats! Now the churchyard is home to these cute little things:

I'm sure they were posing for me!

I then crossed the amphitheatre again to get to the Roman garden, which runs along the outside of the City Wall, and is full of columns found in the City, as well as more recent mosaics, and a replica hypocaust.

I didn't expect to find some Civil War history there as well - there's a portion of wall in the picture which has been rebuilt, after being breached by the Parliamentary forces, who set up their cannons at St Johns. There's a plaque at the base of the wall to remember the dead of both sides, set up by the Sealed Knot.

The Roman garden leads down to the river:

It must have been somewhere close to here that my grandad hired a rowing boat to take my gran out on the river, not long after they got married. They'd come down on the train from Manchester for day trips - it must have been 1937 or 38.

At Leisure in Chester

It's a long time since I've been to Chester, so I was glad to have a half day to explore before I went home from FantasyCon. I was able to leave my suitcase at the hotel, which was a blessing - it was full of books and a lot heavier than when I'd arrived!

This amused me, at the Westminster Hotel right by the Belgrave Hotel.

A short walk up City Road, and there was this view:

And a little further on, a nice example of late nineteenth century social housing:

Then the familiar sight of the Eastgate Clock:

I was heading to the Roman amphitheatre, which I remembered when the building next door, which covers half the site, was still a girls' school. I was sad to see that the building is now derelict. The amphitheatre itself has been improved though:

There's still only half the amphitheatre visible, but now there's a walkway across the semicircle, with a public space beyond it, where I found this model:

There's been a major dig since I last visited, with new walkways put in, and the positions of the original seating marked out in wood, and with rebuilt walls. The altar to Nemesis in a small room just off the arena is also a replica - I think the original is in the Grosvenor Museum: