THE FORTRESS

CHAPTER 13

THE NEW CUT, CANALS AND CIVIC CONSTRUCTION

By the middle of the 18^th Century Chester was beginning to see and feel the full effects of its dwindling seaborne economy and the gradual emergence of Liverpool as the international maritime centre which would ultimately take its place. Although its annual markets and fairs remained economically important to the city, these too would suffer the effects of a lack of investment and poor communications. The salt trade, which in the past had been distributed via Chester, was by the 1720’s being transported by the new canal systems that had been constructed. The emerging coal industry that had sprung up in North Wales was being serviced by new ports that had been specifically established to meet their needs. A lack of both foresight and civic ambition meant that Chester was isolated from these new industries and as a result was not able to benefit from them.

These often missed opportunities meant that the city inevitably began to see a marked decline in the traditional industries that had existed in Chester for centuries. The maritime trades centered on the ancient harbor began to disappear, as well as the associated distribution and leather manufacturing industries that had grown up alongside it. The leather industries themselves had been restricted by new regulations, introduced in the 1680’s, which prevented live imports of cattle and only permitted the importation of cow hides from Ireland. At Chester’s old port the annual tonnage continued to fall, as merchants and traders moved their businesses northward to the new port of Liverpool and its much larger, brand new dock facilities which could handle the much newer, larger ships and their cargoes.

By 1707 Chester’s corporation were said to have repaired the city’s defensive walls and flagged the guard walks that ran along their length. Within a few years the Groves area adjoining the river had been developed into public walks where both citizens and visitor alike could promenade along the banks of the Dee. The area known as the Roodee, which was thought to have been created in part by the progressive silting of the river, was now protected from regular flooding by its creator following the construction of the “Cop” at Crane Bank in 1710.

A noted resident of Chester at the beginning of the 18^th Century was said to have been Sir Peter Denis who was born in the city around 1712 and was educated at the nearby King’s School. Having left school he joined the Royal Navy in the 1720’s and served as a Lieutenant under Anson during his Voyage around the World in 1740. He later commanded the “Centurion” at the Battle of Finisterre and was a member of the Court Martial that tried and condemned Admiral Byng, who was subsequently executed by firing squad. Denis was reported to have led the naval attack on Belle Island and was singled out by his commander Sir Edward Hawke for a special mention regarding his actions.

Denis was said to have been trusted by King George to escort Queen Charlotte to England. He was later made a Baronet in 1767 and was given command of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron in 1771 and as Admiral Sir Peter Denis was reported to have died in 1778

Another noted local man was Matthew Henry, a non-conformist religious leader and preacher in Chester, who was said to have written a book called “Commentary on the Holy Scriptures”, a book that he would never finish. Born at Isycoed in Flintshire in 1662, he had initially trained to become a lawyer, but later changed his mind and gave up his studies to become a dissenting minister.

By 1687 he was reported to have been appointed as a Pastor in Chester and in 1700, friends of the preacher built a chapel in Trinity Street, adjoining the modern day Guildhall, where his message could be heard. Henry was thought to have died at Nantwich in Cheshire but his body was interred at Holy Trinity Church in the city on 22^nd June 1714.

Within the city itself large numbers of new Coaching Inns and Public Houses were being constructed to cater for the ever increasing numbers of travelers that were visiting Chester or just passing through to other destinations. As today, travelers to Ireland embarked from the northwest region and Chester was a regular stopping point on the coach journey to and from the major cities of England and Ireland. Between 1720 and 1740 the number of Public Houses and Coaching Inns is thought to have actually doubled, reflecting the increased levels of human traffic that was flowing through Chester. The period also marked the beginning of large scale retail and residential development within the city center itself, much of which still exists to the present day. The great and the good of the city, including those whose wealth had come from Chester’s former life as an international port, had started to establish their elegant residences in and around the city streets. Throughout the 1740’s Northgate Street, King Street, Castle Street and Newgate Street were all filled with fine multi-storey Georgian town houses that fully exhibited both the prosperity and social standing of their occupants for all to see.

It also represented a return for the provision of public and private charitable institutions that would help cater for the large numbers of homeless and indigent people that still lived within Chester. In 1759 a new corporation work house was established by the city’s leaders where the poor and needy were housed and fed in return for their labor. This new building was located in Paradise Row on the western fringes of the city and was built as a replacement for the small number of individual parish poor-houses that had previously existed within the city. Later the following year new housing for the working classes of the city was built at Crane Street, close to the wharves, timber yards and small ship-building businesses that had by then established themselves close to the newly “canalized” river. Within a matter of some fifty or sixty years however, many of these properties were little more than slums, which would only finally be demolished in the late 1950’s. At the market square, a new business Exchange was built, where the city’s government could be conducted by the local Aldermen and councilors and where its trades could meet to discuss the future commerce of the city.

The latter part of the 18^th Century was the period that marked the clear division between ancient Chester which had its roots in the Saxon and Norman periods and the move towards the modern city that is with us today. Local ordinances were introduced by the local corporation which saw the streets being cleaned and policed and the local residents being protected by a local fire service. In 1761 the Chester Infirmary was built in the city, located on ground that 1500 years earlier had been used by the Roman garrison as a cemetery for their fallen comrades. A physician at the Infirmary, John Haygarth, was said to have gained some note within the city and in the wider region for his unique approach to combating contagious diseases by isolating patients in clean and well ventilated wards.

As with other towns and cities of the time in England, Chester was divided into wards and city constables were appointed by the Mayor for each individual area. Initially the men who were appointed to the post were craftsmen, merchants or other respected members of the local society. It was a highly unpopular and onerous duty, as it was often unpaid and involved keeping watch, when most honest people were asleep in their beds.

The common expression “Hue and Cry” is thought to find its origins in the country’s medieval period, when the “neighborhood watches” were generally undertaken by the city’s Sergeants, Watchmen or Constables. As the name suggests, putting up the Hue and Cry, alerted people to the fact that an event that had taken place within the area, bringing citizens out of their houses to pursue the wrongdoer, often over considerable distances. It was not uncommon for a villain to be chased from ward to ward, area to area and district to district, all the time being harried and hounded by the cries and shouts of his pursuers.

As happens today occasionally, curfews could often be imposed in order to control the night time movements of both visitor and resident. At Chester, curfews typically ran from 8 or 9 O’ Clock in the evening through to daybreak during the lighter months, but were even longer during the winter months. Watches were posted to safeguard the city from strangers, visitors or disasters and were usually posted at each of the city’s ancient gates. This duty was the responsibility of the “Sergeants”, the well heeled family’s who extracted tolls and taxes from traders and merchants who visited Chester to sell their wares. Due to their status however, these watch duties were generally undertaken by a retainer within their household or by a paid substitute.

By the 17^th late Century, the handing over of the city’s keys was a ceremony in itself. The Mayor, Aldermen, Councillors and city Sheriffs would parade through the city, before the Mayor would solemnly pass the keys to the city gates to the appointed Watchmen.

The advent of the city constables also marked the beginning of criminal reporting by the enforcement authorities within the city, allowing records to be kept on the County’s criminals and the sentences handed down to them. History suggests that the law has continually developed and “progressed” over the centuries and was perhaps at its most severe in the later 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th Centuries.

The transportation of criminals was thought to have begun in 1597, with those found guilty of breaking the law often finding themselves being transported to the America’s and helping to colonize that harsh unforgiving land. Given the length and manner of their transport to this New World, many did not survive the arduous journey itself and the possibility of returning to England was almost non-existent.

For those that did manage to survive their sentence which was often served on the newly emerging American plantations, the remainder of their lives would often be spent settling this new continent for the country which had abandoned them.

Following the loss of the American provinces to its immigrant people, who no longer wished to bow to the English monarchy, the penal system in Britain needed a new destination for the increasing numbers of people who were being sentenced to transportation.

By the beginning of the 18^th Century, Chester’s courts were reported to be sending their prisoners, sentenced to transportation, to Liverpool or Bristol where they might be held for months, often in the most onerous conditions. From around 1776 however, the new southern lands of Australia were chosen as the final destination for those that had transgressed the English law. As with their counterparts who had been shipped to the America’s, those transported to the other side of the world for often the most minor of offences would never see their family, friends or their homeland again.

Within the city, those convicted of relatively minor offences could just as easily be sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the Bridewell, which was thought to have been a local House of Corrections, more like a Workhouse rather than a Jail or Prison. Inmates at the local Bridewell were thought to have actually been paid for the work that they undertook while incarcerated. The House of Corrections at Chester was reported to have stood opposite the modern day Bluecoat building, later being used as a Bakery and today as retail units or office space.

The period between 1769 and 1833 saw wholesale changes being made throughout the city, as some of its ancient landmarks were gradually swept away and substituted with many of the structures that continue through to the modern day. From 1769 to 1810 all four medieval gates were demolished and replaced by their modern counterparts. The first was the Eastgate which was built in 1769, with financial help from the Grosvenor family. In 1782 the Bridgegate was erected and at the same time Tyrer’s Water Tower, which had supplied fresh water to the city, but which had been badly damaged during the civil war siege, was finally demolished. The architect of the Bridgegate, Joseph Turner, would also be instrumental in the design and construction of the new Watergate which was built in 1789. Four years later one of his most overlooked commissions was completed. The “Bridge of Sighs” which spanned the new canal gorge outside of the Northgate was built by Turner to provide a walkway for condemned prisoners from the infamous city gaol to the chapel where they would receive their last rites.

This narrow walkway is said to have derived its name from the habit of condemned prisoners to sigh heavily as they crossed its length. Whether this was through sheer relief or total resignation isn’t entirely clear, but given the intolerable conditions within the gaol itself, either sentiment might be true. Thought to originate from before the Norman conquests the conditions within the gaol itself were said to be tortuous and offered little if any comfort to its inmates. Cut deep into the natural rock, two of the rooms, the “Dead Mans” cell and the “Little Ease” were both claustrophobic and oppressive. As they were constructed below ground level and with no natural ventilation, the only air supply was provided by pipes which ran from the surface down to the cells. The Northgate gaol was finally closed in around 1808 in preparation for the replacement of the medieval gateway two years later.

The last of the four medieval city gates to be replaced was the Northgate itself, which was demolished and rebuilt in 1810, with the later gate being designed by local architect Thomas Harrison who is now synonymous with the city of Chester. In 1785 the corporation had run a competition to find a suitable replacement for the gaol which was housed within the precincts of the medieval castle and offered a prize of 50 guineas to the winner. Typhus or Gaol Fever was rife at Chester castle and over the years hundreds of prisoners had succumbed to cold and disease whilst being held in its enclosed and airless conditions. Prison reformer John Howard had likened it to “the black hole of Calcutta” and called for the city authorities to do away with the prison. From the entries that they received, the city chose the plans of a relatively obscure forty-year-old architect called Thomas Harrison who did not even live in Chester. Although unaware of it at the time, the adoption of his proposals would mark the start of a lifetimes work for the Yorkshire born designer that would only finally end with his death in 1829.

The son of a local joiner from Richmond in Yorkshire Thomas Harrison was born in 1744. As a young man Harrison showed an early talent for both mathematics and mechanics and it wasn’t long before his abilities attracted the attention of a local benefactor, who was keen to develop the young mans talents. He arranged for the young Harrison to receive an extensive education, including the Grand Tour, which allowed him to study the great architectural buildings of Europe. It was during this trip that he began to develop the architectural skills that he would later employ in future commissions. In Rome, his services were said to have been appreciated by the Pope who rewarded the young architect with a Gold and Silver medal.

Almost immediately Harrison’s proposals for the gaol at Chester were extended to include the entire castle complex and the replacement of the ancient Castle itself, the great Shire Hall and other medieval structures that had degraded over the previous years. Beginning in 1785, these ancient buildings were systematically deconstructed and swept away, to be replaced with the modern castle development which inhabits the site today. Harrison’s new castle would include a magnificent Shire Hall, Crown Court, Armory, Prison and Military Barracks, all of which would take him the next thirty five years to complete.

By 1792 the new gaol had been completed, its dirty disease-ridden communal chambers replaced by new individual cells for the prisoners, which offered light and space to those that were incarcerated. Inmates that were being held for minor civil offences like debt were now kept separate from the more serious felons that were incarcerated for murder, theft, etc. At the time of its completion this new gaol was regarded by most as a real step forward in penal reform and yet it was later demolished to make way for the new County Hall which stands on the site today.

Between 1791 and 1801 the centerpiece of the new castle complex was constructed, the magnificently colonnaded portico incorporating the county’s Shire Hall and judicial Courts. To the east and west of this central building, new wings were added which would subsequently accommodate the Armory and military Barracks. Now extending well beyond the limits of the medieval walls, Harrison designed a new gateway for the castle in the form of a “Propylaeum” built on large stone columns. Although the problem was not obvious during Harrison’s time, the decision to build the Shire Hall and its Courts directly above the former medieval castles moat would later prove to be a costly decision. In the 1920’s large cracks began to appear in the Court buildings, which was attributed to the inadequate foundations that lay below them. Remedial work was undertaken almost immediately and by 1922 the building and its supporting columns had been fully restored. To this day, Chester Crown Court regularly hears a number of high profile criminal cases, but is most commonly linked with the 1960’s trial of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady who were tried and found guilty of the infamous Moors Murders.

The Yorkshire born architect was also said to have undertaken the restoration of the city’s historic cathedral, which had suffered much over the previous centuries. Visitors and commentators alike had been moved to highlight the dreadfully poor condition of its magnificent stonework and to call for remedial action to save the historic structure. Between 1818 and 1820 extensive renovations were undertaken to preserve the building’s inner and outer fabric and to ensure that it would survive intact in the coming decades.

Harrison was also responsible for the design of Chester’s second river crossing, the Grosvenor Bridge, but sadly did not live to see its completion as he died in 1829, aged 85. Opened by the then 13 year old Princess Victoria in 1833, the bridge project was reported to have been completed by William Cole, a pupil of Harrison’s. Up until 1864 the Grosvenor Bridge was thought to be the world’s greatest single span stone bridge, standing 200 feet wide and 60 feet high.

Before his death, Harrison was also said to have rebuilt the ancient St Bridget’s church around 1825 after it had been demolished to make way for Grosvenor Road and he relocated it close to the castle complex. Sadly the rebuilt church failed to survive later city developments and finally disappeared forever during the 20^th Century, along with many other of the city’s historic buildings

Foliot House in Northgate Street was another Harrison building, that has managed to last the test of time, but is today hidden by the later “Odeon” cinema and has been converted into offices. Chester’s northern gate was also designed by Harrison and was erected between 1808 and 1810. He was also the architect of the city’s Commercial Building and News Room which was situated on Northgate Street in the city.

While Thomas Harrison was building his new complex at the castle, Chester was trying to build new means of communications with the wider region. Sadly for the city though, the most economically vital scheme, that of the Chester canal system was hampered by a lack of both vision and money within the corporation. Other proposals, one of which had promised a restoration of the River Dee’s navigation for trading ships was also hit by a level of skepticism within the community and an apparent lack of intent on the part of its builders which would finally put an end to any future hopes for its now marooned historic port.

In 1737 work was started which would see the course of the River Dee diverted five miles to the south of its original position. This “New Cut” required the river to be redirected through an artificially built channel, which was ten miles long and ran from Connahs Quay through to the city itself. This new “canal” allowed large tracts of land to be reclaimed from the river course and which today are represented by the present day Sealand area. The scheme was said to have worked for an extensive period, but the River Dee project was never likely to be a real long-term success, simply because of the lack of intervention on the part of the River Dee Company themselves and the constant re-silting of the channel through the natural action of the river itself. 1771 was reported to have been the most productive year for the port at Chester with large numbers of ships going in and out of the ancient harbor. In the course of the next fifty years or so the city enjoyed a short-term resurgence in its trade, but the inevitable silting of the channel would finally dispel any hopes of prolonged prosperity and would lead to accusations of wrong-doing against those involved with the scheme.

The lands on the northern bank of the river which had been reclaimed as a result of the new channel was said to have belonged to the speculators that had invested in the new venture and was thought by some to be the real reason for diverting the River Dee so far off its early course. The northern bank of the Dee estuary, including the former historic ports at Burton and Parkgate, have in their recent histories become inundated and strangled with marshland. Its effect has been augmented by the introduction of hard grasses which were planted by the John Summers Steel Works in 1895 in an effort to stabilize the ground which adjoined their industrial complex and which was then allowed to spread unchecked along the length of the estuary.

There is a new suggestion, that the River Dee was always doomed to fail and that mans interference and use of it has only hastened what was an inevitable end. The theory goes, that the rivers estuary was formed by ice sheets moving south east from the Irish Sea and not by the scouring action of the water itself. Once the ice had retreated, the resulting estuary was too shallow and wide to support a great body of water, which in normal circumstances would have carved its own deep river channels and cleared obstructions through the force of its currents. This lack of natural power in the river prevented the clearing away of sand and soil deposits which over the centuries accumulated to the point where they inhibited successful navigation of the rivers course.

Some twenty years after the start of the River Dee’s “New Cut” scheme had been started, a number of local business leaders within Chester proposed the building of a canal system from the city to Middlewich. It was hoped that this new waterway might help the city to compete with the new trading and shipping port of Liverpool that was beginning to dominate the whole of the northwest region. Following complaints from the competing Trent and Mersey Canal Company however, plans for the new system were amended so that the new canal would run from Chester to Nantwich and a link to Middlewich would be constructed at a later date.

In April 1772 the Mayor of Chester, Joseph Taylor, performed the official opening ceremony for the new Chester canal system which promised so much for the city’s future prosperity. As it turned out though, the waterway turned out to be an unmitigated disaster for everyone involved. Having cost over £70,000, the lack of the final link to Middlewich and its vital access to the regional system, meant that Chester’s canal was of little use to the manufacturers and traders that were supposed to use it. With no finances left to develop this final link and nobody using the stretches of canal that did exist, within a few years the system was deserted and large parts of it had become derelict.

At Ellesmere in Shropshire in 1791 another group of businessmen came together to launch a proposal for a canal network of their own, one which would help to link the three major rivers within the region, the Dee, the Severn and the Mersey. By 1796 the first part of the system had been completed by William Jessup, who was aided in its construction by a then relatively unknown junior engineer called Thomas Telford. The northern terminus of this canal was located at Netherpool and ran across West Cheshire, through the townships of Caughall, Backford and Mollington before reaching its southern limit at the city of Chester. Such was the success of this first “Ellesmere” canal that Netherpool was renamed Ellesmere Port and it was used to carry passengers along this “Wirral” line from Chester to the ports on the River Mersey.

Plans to develop the canal system southward were far more problematic and it would be some years before the Ellesmere and Chester canals could finally link to the waterways that were being constructed in Wales. The Pontsycyllte Aqueduct which was a pivotal link in the amalgamation of the two water courses proved to be extremely expensive and time consuming feat of engineering. Until such time as it was completed there was a 17 mile gap between the two systems, which prevented the easy and economic transport of goods from one region to another. The southern end of the Ellesmere canal was fed by the River Dee as it flowed through Llangollen and was located close to the troublesome Pontsycyllte Aqueduct. By linking the two waterways at this point the whole system was opened up for the manufacturing businesses of both regions and within a short time this stretch of water was reported to be one of the busiest in the country.

In 1804 the Ellesmere Canal Company tried to buy the Chester Canal from its shareholders, but the offer was refused as the Chester Company still hoped to build the vital link to Middlewich and gain access to both the regional and national canal networks. In spite of the unsuccessful takeover, the two companies still retained good working relations and the Shropshire company settled for rerouting their canal to Hurleston which was to the north of Nantwich and where they could finally link up to the Chester waterway. In 1805 the much delayed Pontsycyllte Aqueduct was officially opened and a permanent link between the northwest of England and Wales was established. This year also marked the true beginnings of the economic value of the system as the first commercial cargoes began to be transported by the new canal network.

Eight years later the two canal companies finally decided to merge and became the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company. Although still detached from the regional and national waterways because of the missing link at Middlewich, the new company began to flourish. In 1821 the network was further extended and enriched by the opening of the Montgomeryshire Canal which ran northward from Newtown in Mid Wales and meant substantially more boats and barges using the system on a day to day basis.

In 1824 new plans were put in place to develop the Ellesmere and Chester canal system even further by building a brand new link from Nantwich through to the village of Autherley which was on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. From here commercial traffic could then join the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canals and begin to reach the wider regions that had evaded them for so long. At the same time, the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company put forward plans to build a short link from Barbridge through to Middlewich and the wider network. First proposed in 1770, this vital link was finally achieved in 1833 under the control of its engineer Thomas Telford. Some 60 years after it had first been suggested, the essential element that had been missing for so long was finally a reality.

1825 also saw the construction of the Birmingham to Liverpool canal system which linked two of the new economic powerhouses that were emerging within the country. As this waterway passed Nantwich it offered the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company a golden opportunity to extend its transport links to the south and north of the country. Ten years later a new canal was built which linked the waterways in the south with those in the north and enabling freight to be carried anywhere in the country.

By 1840 these new canal systems were beginning to be seen as crucial to the economic development of the hundreds of towns and cities that they united. At Chester, regular steam boat services were carrying passengers to and from the River Mersey to meet up with the continental and Trans-Atlantic ships that were operating from Liverpool. By 1845 the railways were beginning to make serious inroads into the passenger transport services and the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company merged with the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal Company to become the Shropshire Union Railways and Canals Company.

As in most developed countries the life-span of the canals and inland waterways as commercial highways was a relatively short-lived affair. The emergence of the railways as passenger transports and commercial vehicles soon surpassed barges and boats in terms of both time and cost. Any hopes that the city of Chester might have had in limiting the economic importance of Liverpool, or competing against this new major port, were seemingly undermined by a lack of both vision and finances. The potential for Chester to benefit from the rapid development and spread of the new canal systems was lost forever, during the 60 years that it took to build a vital link to the outside world. The city did gain new business from these inland waterways, the Steam and Corn Mills were in operation by 1819 and the Lead Works had been built earlier than that, but no new large scale industries had settled in the city as a direct result of the canals presence. By the middle of the 19^th Century the two biggest employers in Chester were the Lead Works and the Dee Mills and one of them had already been in the city for the best part of 900 years.

In the city itself, the pace of modernization continued, under the guidance of the architect Thomas Harrison and Chester’s corporation. Around 1778 a new Linen Hall was erected to serve the city’s cloth fairs, with individual stalls and shops congregating around a new central courtyard where business was conducted. On the south eastern flanks of the city’s walls close to the river, the Recorders Steps were built reportedly at the request of Roger Comberbach, the Recorder of Chester between 1700 and 1719, whose house was located nearby. Beyond these, lay a series of six small flights of steps which are often referred to as the Wishing Steps, built in 1785. Legend has it that if a person could run up and down these flights of steps on one breath of air, then their wish would come true. In 1800 the public stocks and pillory post which had stood for hundreds of years and which had acted as both public entertainment and deterrent were finally removed. Three years later, the Inner Pentice which had sat next to St Peter’s church near the High Cross was finally demolished. It had served as a meeting place for the Mayor and his corporation and had hosted the city’s Petty Sessions, but with the construction of the new Exchange building on the market square had eventually become obsolete.

In 1807 a new County gaol was built between the Infirmary and the Watergate, close to the modern day Queens School which lies along City Walls Road. The ancient Northgate prison, with its miserably damp and airless cells was finally consigned to history and reflected a far more humane approach to crime and punishment. A new House of Corrections was built outside of the Northgate in 1808, standing across the road from the Bluecoat School it was designed to house those that had been convicted of crimes in the city. In later years the site would be occupied first by a bakery and today by an employment agency and retail shops. Around 1820 the city’s Work-House was developed, with the addition of a Lunatic Wing for those that suffered from little understood mental illnesses and shortly after that a School for the children of its residents was added.

In the market square area of the city, new buildings were constructed to accommodate the growing ranks of entrepreneurs and traders that made their livings from the local population. The new Exchange building which was the forerunner of the modern day Town Hall housed the administrative and commercial heart of the city and provided a central point for the various parades, markets and marches that took place within Chester. At the northern end of the square, private residences built by the likes of the Massey family were constructed and would later be the site the Shropshire Arms. Where the Odeon Cinema stands today, was the home of local artist James Hunter who gave his name to Hunter Street. That house would itself be replaced in the 1820’s by Northgate House, which would later become the lodging house for Judges that would sit at Chester Assizes held in the city’s Exchange.

As the Georgian period came to an end and William IV completed his reign, the city was slowly becoming the tourist attraction and retail centre that it remains to this day. Many of the innovative projects and strikingly handsome buildings that emerged during these years are immediately recognizable today and that is a true testament to the likes of Harrison and Turner who did much to change the fabric and direction of this ancient city.

Within a short period it would become renowned for its historic fortifications, its covered shopping rows and the density of both its churches and pubs. The dawn of the Victorian age, marked by the accession of a young girl to the throne of England in 1837 would see this traditional view of the city consolidated and developed in the years that lay ahead. 

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