Saxon / Norman / Medieval Chester (401-1500)
Text: Chester City CouncilSAXON CHESTER: 401-1066
SUB-ROMAN CHESTER The Roman military occupation of Chester ended about 370 AD, but Roman rule of Britain struggled on until 401 AD, when the emperor Honorius abandoned responsibility for the defence of the country to local civilian authorities. Some form of occupation of Chester seems to have continued after the Roman army left. By the early 7th century, Chester was within the Welsh kingdom of Powys, and may even have been the capital of part of it.
MERCIAN CHESTER Later in the 7th century, Chester fell under Saxon control as part of the kingdom of Mercia. St. John's Church, just outside the Roman fortress is said to have been founded in 689 and a settlement may have grown up around it.
SAXON BURGH In 907 Althelflaeda 'Lady of the Mercians' and daughter of King Alfred the Great, refortified Chester as a 'burgh' or fortified town, to protect the local population from Viking raids. She may have extended the northern and eastern Roman walls with earth ramparts connected to the river. The principal streets of the Roman fortress were retained, although lesser Roman streets were lost and new streets like King Street, Princess Street and Newgate Street came into being.
LATE SAXON CHESTER In the 10th and 11th centuries, Chester grew rapidly and enjoyed great prosperity as one of the main centres of the Irish sea trade. It had one of the most prolific mints in the country and also developed as an administrative centre. In 973, British and Viking princes demonstrated their submission to the Saxon King Edgar, by rowing him up the river Dee to St. John's Church.
For the most part, the population of late Saxon Chester seems to have lived in and around the ruined remains of the Roman fortress buildings. Houses would have been of timber, so little evidence survives, but by the end of the period the street frontages were probably beginning to be built up. Outside the fortress there were clusters of occupation around St. John's Church, along Foregate Street and also along Lower Bridge Street where a Scandanavian settlement grew up.
SAXON CHURCHES Late Saxon Chester became an important ecclesiastical centre. St. Peter's Church on the site of the old legionary headquarters at The Cross, was founded in 907. St. John's and St. Werburgh's (originally dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul) were minsters with large parishes. In Lower Bridge Street, the churches dedicated to the Norwegian St. Olaf (Olave) and the Norse-Irish St. Bridget, were also pre-conquest foundations.
SAXON ECONOMY Chester's wealth at this time came largely from the port and the mint. Sea trade was largely focused on Dublin, then the principal port of the Irish sea. Besides food, Chester is known to have imported animal pelts, skins, fish, cattle and sheep. Exports included salt, disc brooches, pottery, cloth and slaves.
The mint, which probably began production in towards the end of the 9th century, grew to be one of the most largest in the country during the 10th. The large quantities of silver pennies minted in Chester, helped finance the booming trade with the Viking north and Chester pennies have been found in Ireland and Scandinavia.
NORMAN CHESTER: 1066-1200
DOMESDAY CHESTER By 1066, Chester was a prosperous town with a population of 2,500 - 3,000 people. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded that at the end of the Saxon period, there were 508 houses. Not only was Chester a thriving port and trading community, but it also had its own well-established laws and customs, administered by a court called the Hundred.
NORMAN CONQUEST William the Conquerer's victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 changed everything. Northerners, including the people of Chester, rose in revolt against the new French king's rule. In 1070 William's army marched through Cheshire, laying waste the countryside. 205 of Chester's 508 houses were burnt down. William immediately imposed his authority by building an earth and timber 'motte and bailey' castle overlooking the Dee to the south west of the Saxon town.
NORMAN EARLDOM William I established a strong earldom at Chester, together with others along the Welsh Marches, based on Shrewsbury and Hereford. The first Earl of Chester was Hugh of Avranches, nickamed Hugh Lupus (the wolf). He was succeeded by another six earls. The last earl, John the Scot, died in 1237 without heirs and the eardom was annexed to the Crown. Since then the eardom and the title Earl of Chester has always been held by the monarch's eldest son. So, from the 1070s onwards, Chester was not only an important town in its own right, but the administrative centre for one of the most powerful earldoms in the country.
NORMAN CASTLE The greatest symbol of Norman power was the Castle, which occupied a prominant site overlooking the strategically importand Dee Bridge and the port area. The original motte and bailey castle was rebuilt in stone during the 12th century and given an impressive gateway now known as the Agricola Tower. At this time the outer bailey was added, although the main stone defences and residential accommodation would not be completed until the 13th century. Although rarely used by the earls themselves, the Castle was the administrative base for the earldon, housing the various officials, courts and other institutions.
NORMAN DEFENCES The Norman earls refortified Chester and extended the Roman and Saxon defences to complete the walled circuit which survives today. The southern wall, adjacent to the river was built in the 1120s and the western side of the wall in the second half of the 12th the century. However, the walls were only one part of an integrated defensive system, which also included towers, gates, ditched and outworks.
RELIGIOUS LIFE The Normans brought many changes to the religious life of the city. In 1075, Peter the Norman bishop of Lichfield, moved his see to St. John's Church, then a collegiate church. He began to build a fine new church, worthy of its cathedral status. However, very little work had been completed before Peter died in 1085 and ten years later the see was moved back to Lichfield. Despite this, St. John's continued to be described as a cathedral and the rebuilding of this great church continued for another two centuries.
The Normans also brought monasteries to Chester. In 1092 Hugh Lupus, first Earl of Chester, re-founded the Saxon minster of St. Werburgh as a Benedictine abbey. Monks from the monastery at Bec in Normandy were brought over, to ensure that Norman observances prevailed. The abey was richly endowed with income and land, including all the north-eastern corner of the city, which became the abbey precinct. A Benedictine nunnery was also founded near the Castle in about 1150, on the site currently occupied by the former County Police Headquarters.
TRADE AND ECONOMY Chester's trade with Ireland remained crucial to the economy and the port, situated to the south of the town, continued to prosper. Wine became a valuable import, with cargoes recorded from Germany, Aquitaine and Spain. Chester also grew as a regional retailing centre. The first market was situated in front of St. Peter's Church at the Cross, and a second was established in front of St. Werburgh's Abbey Gateway by Earl Ranulph II. There were two annual fairs at Midummer and Michaelmas.
Local industries included potteries, brewing and leather dressing on the northern bank of the river. The Dee Mills were built at the northern end of the the great northern causeway or weir in the late 11th century. All citizens, except the monks of St. Werburgh were required to grind their corn at the mills and pay the earls a toll for the service. Salmon fishing on the Dee was also important. The earls had a fishery by the Dee bridge and fishing rights were granted to the various relgious houses at a cost.
MEDIEVAL CHESTER:1200 1501
MEDIEVAL GROUND PLAN At the beginning of the 13th century, Chester was a prosperous city with a well established pattern of settlement. The plan of the city was essentially that which had been inherited from the Saxons and the Romans before them. The main streets remained the same although new ones were laid out. Barn Lane (now King Street) led down to the tithe barn of St. Werburgh's Abbey, somewhere in the south-western corner of the city. Parson's Lane now Princess Street)ran from the Abbey Gateway to the house of the rector of St. Oswald's, who until the 1340s, used the abbey nave as his church.
Within the extended City Walls, substantial amounts of land were taken up by the two great institutions of Norman Chester: the Castle in the south-western part of the city and the Abbey which almost entirely occupied the north-eastern quarter. Elswhere, the buildings of Chester were packed tightly along the street frontages, although there was still much open land behind them. The western side of Chester was still largely undeveloped. Known as the 'Crofts', it was cultivated as market gardens and orchards, until granted to the new religious houses early in the 13th century.
MEDIEVAL BOOM TOWN During the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Chester achieved greater prosperity than ever before - or again - in its long history. This economic boom lasted for only about fifty years, but was to have a massive impact on the later development of the city and its buildings.
In 1277, Edward I mounted the first of his military campaigns to crush the Welsh, chosing Chester as his base. Chester's status was immediately transformed from that of small provincial city and garrison town, to a military centre of national strategic importance. Hundreds of soldiers were billeted in the city, while huge quantities of food and other supplies were chanelled through the port. Edward's second campaign of 1282-83 effectively subdued the Welsh, but the king now embarked upon a massive programme of castle building. Chester became the gathering point for all highly skilled engineers, masons and craftesmen who worked on the great chain of Welsh castles, stretching from Flint to Harlech.
During the winter months, these craftsmen remained in Chester, where the city's merchants were enjoying unprecidented wealth. There can be little coincidence in the fact that Chester's unique two tiered Row system developed during the very period when Chester's citizens had the money to commission fashionable new houses and the best and most highly skilled craftsmen in the country were on hand to build them.
BLACK DEATH This period of prosperity ended in 1349, when Black Death devastated so much of the country, including Chester. The city's population fell by as much as a third and the economy stagnated. There would be very little new building or even rebuilding until thelate 16th century, and Chester's fine houses and Row buildings of theboom years, were to remain relatively unchanges for over two centuries.
PARISH CHURCHES Religious activity played a central role in the medieval community and Chester's skyline would have been dominated by the towers and spires of its parish churches. Chester had nine medieval parishes, but only eight parish churches. The churches were: St. John (surviving); St. Peter (surviving); St.Mary (surviving); St. Michael (now Chester History and Heritage); Holy Trinity (now the Guild Hall); St Olave (surviving); St.Martin (demolished) and St. Bridget (demolished). Only the churches of St. John and St. Paul are still places of worship. The parish of St. Oswald did not get its own church until 1881 (and then confusingly it was called St. Thomas's).Before then it successively occupied the abbey nave, St. Nicholas chapel ans the south transcept of the Cathedral.
RELIGOUS HOUSES Throughout the medieval period, the grandest religous house in Chester continued to be the Abbey of St. Werburgh, which ranked high among the wealthiest Benedictine monasteries in the country. As well as being the greatest landowner in the city, the abbey had its own trading privileges, including the annual Midsummer Fair, and held its own court. Not surprisingly, its power within the city led to frequent disputes with the mayor and corporation.
Three other religious houses were established during the 13th century. Unlike the abbey, these were popular with the citizens, for instead of forming a closed community cut off from the world and dedicated to a life of worship, these friars went out into the world, preaching and ministering to the poor and needy.
The Dominicans or Black Friars arrived in 1236, occupying a site to the west of the city between Black Friars Lane and Watergate Street. They were followed in 1237 by the Franciscians or Grey Friars, whose house stood north of Lower Watergate Street. Finally, the Carmelites or White Friars came sometime before 1277 and built their church alongside White Friars Lane in 1290. Although never rich, these religous houses were successively enlarged and they became very significant features within the medieval townscape, occupying almost a quarter of the land within the walled city.
HOSPITALS In addition to St. Werbugh's Abbey, the three friaries and St. Mary's Nunnery, there were also medieval hospitals, providing accommodation and support for the needy and infirm. St. Giles at Boughton was originally a leper hospital. Jut outside the Northgate, the Hospital of Little St. John, provided accommodation for 13 inmates.
MEDIEVAL TRADE Medieval Chester was a market town and trading centre of regional importance. The twice weekly markets outside St. Peter's Church and the Abbey Gateway, spilled out into the main streets. The Midsummer Fair lasted a month and the Michaelmas Fair two weeks.
A great variety of specialist craftsmen worked in Chester, most importantly those engaged in victualling, the production of cloth and clothing and the leather working trades. As in other towns, traders and craftsmen with similar wares, worked in distict areas close to each other. For example, the butchers congregated in Flesmongers' Row near The Cross. Cooks and bakers were in Cooks Row in Northgate Street and the Fishmongers operated from Watergate Street.
Chester produced both woollen and linen textiles and served as a cloth finishing centre for the surrounding area. The fulling or cloth mills were situated on the south or Handbridge side of the Dee weir. However, Chester workers were involved in many branches of the industry, including weavers, challoners (weavers of bedding), wakers and shearmen. The cloth made in Chester was generally coarse, but fine woollen cloths from Yorkshire and the Midlands were sold by the city's drapers. Luxury materials like imported silks, velvets and linens were sold by mercers, trading from Mercers' Row on the east side of Bridge Street.
The various leather trades grew in importance. Hides were important from ireland or supplied by local buchers. Tanning and the preparation of skins was a particularly smelly operation and tok place well away from the centre of town in the Love Street and Union Street areas. Shoemakers congregated in 'Corvoiser' Row at the corner of Bridge Street and Eastgate Street, while glovers and skinners had workshops on the western side of the city, between the river and the City Wall.
THE PORT During this period Chester's port was of national importance, second only to Bristol on the west coast and the Head Port for all the harbours in North Wales and North West England. There was substantial trade with Europe and Ireland, while the local coastal trade was particularly important at a time when suppies were needed for the royal castles along the North Wales coast. However, the port suffered from its position facing away from the continent, but also because the silting of the Dee estuary was already causing problems. Ships with heavy cargoes like wine, had to unload at anchorages in Wirral and then transfer to Chester by smaller craft or cart.