City Gates and Walls
Chester City Wall is the most complete circuit of Roman and medieval defensive town wall in Britain, Constructed in local red sandstone and rising to heights of 12m (40ft), it extends 3km (2 miles) around the medieval city.
ROMAN DEFENCES The first defences were built by the Romans, who established the legionary fortress of Deva in the mid 70s AD. The fortress defences enclosed an area of about 60 acres (24 hectares)and were rectangular of 'playing card' in shape. The earliest defences comprised a turf rampart some 6m (20ft) wide by 4.5m (15ft) high. On top was a tall wooden palisade. The four gateways, corner towers and interval towers were also constructed in timber. Just outside the rampart was a V-shaped ditch up to 5m (16ft 6ins) wide and 1.75m (6ft) deep.
Shortly after 100AD, these defences were reconstructed in stone. A high stone facing wall was added to the front of the rampart and towers and gateways were completely rebuilt. A new and deeper ditch was cut. The towers seem to have been rebuilt again at the beginning of the 3rd century and later, the north wall was extensively repaired. During this work, many earlier Roman tomestones were re-used as building blocks. This remarkable collection of inscribed stones, discovered in the 1880s, can be seen in the Grosvenor Museum.
Sections of the Roman curtain wall have survived, notably just east of the Northgate, where the facing wall and projecting cornice are clearly visible. However, the fortress gateways have long disappeared, although part of the eastern gate was revealed when the medieval Eastgate was demolished in the 1760s. Contemporary engravings show a typically impressive stone structure, with two wide arches flanked by towers.
The stone for the fortress came from a large quarry which can still be sen at Edgar's Field on the south bank of the river Dee. Carved into the sandstone is a much-weathered shrine to thegoddess Minerva, the protector of craftsmen. Excavations have revealed that quarrying ceased in the 4th century, just before the end of Roman occupation.
SAXON DEFENCES After the Roman army left Chester, the walls and gates gradually fell into decay and the ditch silted up. However, there were still very substantial remains in 907, when the Mercian princess Aelthelflaeda refortified Chester as a Saxon burgh. The line of the Saxon defences is largely conjectural, but it seems probable that the northern and eastern walls were reused and extended by means of earthern banks down to the river. The western and southern sides of the Roman defences may have been abandoned.
NORMAN AND MEDIEVAL DEFENCES The walls were finally completed by the Norman Earls who ruled Chester from 1070 until 1237. The Roman northern and eastern wall was repaired and the circuit extended, with new walls built on the southern and western sides. Unlike the Roman wall, the medieval defences were constructed entirely of stone, with no turf rampart behind. The walls were only one part of an integrated defensive system which also included towers, gates, ditches and outworks.
During the Middle Ages, impressive defended gateways were built at the Eastgate, Bridgegate and Northgate. Watergate, which led out to the main Port of Chester, was a simple arched opening through the walls. Eastgate, the main entrance into the city, was a tall tower with with four projecting turrets and flanking towers. Stylistic similarities to the King's Gate at Caernarfon Castle, suggest that it was built in the early 14th century.
Around the walled circuit there were at least ten watch towers, projecting forward from the walls to provide flanking fire. The Water Tower at the north-western corner was built in 1323, to protect the quays of the harbour which lay under the walls. When it was first built, the tower stood in the river, connected to the main walls by a spur wall. As the river gradually silted up and changed its course, the Water Tower was stranded on the shore. Today, it stands isolated in a public garden some 200m (650ft) from the river.
LOOKING AFTER THE WALLS Keeping the wall in good repair was a constant pre-occupation for the city authorities. From the later Middle Ages, the upkeep of the wall was the responsibility of the Muringers, two elected officials, who collected a special murage tax levied on imports. However, by the mid-17th century, when Civil War loomed, the walls were in very poor condition.
CIVIL WAR DEFENCES At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, the walls were extensively repaired. Additional defences in the form of earthern banks with gun mounts, were constucted to protect the suburbs. As the war progressed, these outworks were strengthened and reduced in length as some of the suburbs were abandoned. The siege of Chester by Pariamentary forces lasted intermittently from November 1644 until the city surrendered in February 1646. Tremendous damage was caused to the walls. A repaired breach just south of the Newgate demonstrates the intensity of the bombardment by enemy cannon. Cannon ball marks can still be seen in the south-eastern wall.
18th CENTURY IMPROVEMENTS The devastation caused by the Civil War meant that attempts to repair the wall were inevitably half-hearted. It was not until the beginning of the 18th century, when the walls had lost their military significance, that the City Corporation began to repair the walls and turn them into a promenade. An inscription on the Goblin Tower (now known as Pemberton's Parlour) records that "...[in] the glorious reign of Queen Anne, divers large breaches in these walls were rebuilt and other decays herein were repaired, two thousand yards of the pace new Flagged or Paved, and the whole Improved, Regulated and Adorned, at the Expense of One thousand Pounds and Upwards".
These improvements were abandoned temporarily dring the Jacobite scare of 1745, but by the end of the century the walls had been transformed. Most of the medieval towers had been taken down for the convenience of pedestrians and the four main medieval gateways were removed and replaced by arched bridges: Eastgate (1768-69); Watergate (1778) and Bridgegate (1782). Northgate, the last to be demolished, was a forbidding structure which until 1807, housed the City Gaol. It was replaced in 1808-10 by an austere classical stone bridge, designed by Thomas Harrison.
19th CENTURY ONWARDS Since the early 19th century, the City Wall has been an increasingly important tourist attraction. Changes have been relatively few. In the 1830s, the line of the southern wall at Castle Drive was realigned to make a riverside promanade. The north-western corner was breached in the 1840s to make way for the Chester and Holyhead railway line. Two new gateways were added in the 20th century. The Newgate, designed by Sir Walter and Michael Tapper, was built in 1938 to replace the medieval Wolf Gate, which still survives beside its successor. St. Martin's Gate opened in 1966, when the Inner Ring Road cut through the northern wall. Recent improvements have included an innovative programme of interpretative and directional signage, and a new roof structure for Thimbleby's Tower.