THE FORTRESS

CHAPTER 15

BUILDERS, BREWERIES AND BRAND NEW BUSINESSES

The accession of the teenage Victoria to the English throne in 1837 marked the start of a truly remarkable period in what had already been the long and colorful history for this country. During the next 64 years of her reign, Britain and her people would see both the industrial and military might of this country at the height of their powers and helping to establish the nation as the world’s leading political, military and economic superpower.

Throughout Britain, the new changes in working practices and the progression towards greater industrialization through modern machine based production methods allowed the country to out-perform its foreign competitors, in terms of both quantity and unit cost. The advent of the steam engine and the steam turbine, allied to the developments in railway and ship building designs, all helped to push forward the pace of change within the country and generate even greater wealth for those who were brave enough to embrace these exciting new opportunities.

Unlike its more northerly neighbors, Chester no longer had a major industrial port to trade from or a totally reliable water course where new mills could be located. It had no natural resources of its own, unlike the coal towns that had continued to spring up throughout Wales and so was compelled to try and find a new purpose for itself and the people that lived within its city limits. The construction of the new canal networks, although initially limited, had helped to bring new business to Chester, but certainly not at the levels experienced by the likes of Liverpool and Manchester. The coming of the railways in the 1840’s did make an important contribution to the wealth of the city, both in terms of the employment created by the new rail companies themselves and the increased business opportunities that were generated by the growing numbers of tourists that chose to visit the city for its retail shopping and historic attractions.

The commercial centre of Chester continued to remain within the historic precincts of the former Roman fortress, alongside the main shopping streets which met at the junction of the city’s High Cross. Despite the development of new industrial sites in Hoole and Saltney which added to its growing prosperity, the retail core of Chester which was principally owned by the most influential citizens of the city, led the way in terms of future planning and development. The city’s corporation, along with a few of Chester’s largest landowners seemed to have shared a common view of Chester’s future and were keen that large-scale commercial expansion outside of the city’s historic walls should not undermine their own property holdings or indeed their influence in the city itself. This is perhaps best illustrated by the later construction of the Chester General Railway Station in around 1848 and the subsequent development of the City Road area in the 1860’s. This new road was the main route into Chester for those traveling by rail and under normal circumstances would have been extensively developed along its full length through to the centre of the city. Instead, only the end closest to the station itself was commercially developed with a number of large hotels sited there and little else. One of these hotels, The Queen Railway Hotel, which had been built in 1860 was reported to have been completely burned down in the following year and was rebuilt by 1862 as the Queens Hotel which remains in the city today. This eastern flank of the city has been one of the areas hardest hit by the modern ring road that was built during the 1960’s and by subsequent traffic systems which were designed to help filter vehicles into and around Chester.

Between 1848 and 1890 three separate railway stations were opened on the outskirts of the city, including the main General Station which was located in the Newtown area. A second was constructed at the northern end of Upper Northgate Street and the final one was located on Liverpool Road, just outside of the city center. The railways were thought to have first arrived in Chester with the opening of the Chester to Birkenhead line in 1838, followed by a Chester to Crewe line and the Chester to Holyhead service which initially terminated at Bangor in North Wales. These new and emerging rail services offered a large number of economic benefits both to the city and its inhabitants, not least of which were the employment opportunities being offered by these new transport companies. The new heavy industries that were establishing their businesses in Birkenhead and later at Shotton needed a local workforce and the growing rail network was able to provide a reliable transport system for their labor force. By 1870 Chester was a central hub for much of the regional railway network, which helped to enhance the city’s position as a major regional centre. By the middle of the 19^th Century a large number of Chester’s male workforce was either employed directly by the railways themselves or by service companies that supplied these same new transport companies.

The growing ranks of workers who lived in Chester needed new homes and this provided valuable new opportunities for the city’s local builders and private landlords alike. The northern suburb of Newtown was one area used to build this much needed accommodation and by 1870 the area was extensively covered by hundreds of small terraced workers houses. These properties were owned in the main by private landlords or by the local builders who had constructed them, but at least they were relatively new and reasonably built. If there was a drawback to the area, it was the presence of the nearby sawmills, tanneries, chemical works and engineering companies that were located around the Brook Street area and producing increasing levels of intrusive noises and smells that were related to their trades. Also close by were the Cattle Markets that had been built by 1889 at Gorse Stacks in the hope that Chester’s livestock fairs might fully compete with the existing regional centre at Beeston. The market lacked really good transport links however and was always likely to struggle and the construction of the Newtown high rise flats and the city’s ring road saw the sheds finally demolished in the early 1960’s. Today the site of the cattle market lies beneath the dual carriage-ways that encircle the city and the vast expanse of car parking that covers much of the Gorse Stacks area.

Beyond them and along the banks of the Shropshire Union canal lay the expanding Lead Works which had located in the city in around 1800. Initially the works had been producing white and red leads for the paint industries, but by 1820 a rolling mill and other plant had been introduced to manufacture lead pipes which were then shipped to the wider region. Later in the 19^th Century the company was said to have installed its own gas works to run its furnaces and a dedicated rail siding was constructed to transport its products throughout the whole of the country. The city’s Lead Works was probably one of the few success stories that ever came out of Chester’s unsuccessful “industrial” past, but in recent years it too has finally had to succumb to the unremitting modernization of the city and was replaced by several blocks of uniform modern apartments

On both sides of the canal and towards the city itself there were thought to be a number of mills operating during much of the 19^th Century that handled many of the cereal crops that were being brought into Chester. By the beginning of the 20^th Century however, many of those that were still in business had changed to handling animal feed only, but within a few years had themselves ceased to trade or were simply used as warehouses. The Milton Street Steam Mill has been converted to a hotel in recent years but still retains its chimney which continues to dominate this part of the city’s skyline. Close to the Steam Mill, the two banks of the canal had been joined by around 1814 following the construction of the compact Union Bridge which still remains in existence today.

On the northern bank of the canal, around Egerton Street, were the premises for one of the city’s main brass and iron foundries lying to the east and a large engineering company that occupied a greater part of the western side of the street. Scattered in between these two great enterprises were numbers of small terraced houses which had been built by the owner of the foundry for the benefit of his workers. By 1910 however, the foundry was gone and the site was used for the construction of the present day Egerton Street School which is now a private playschool. Around the area generally, many of the old terraces were said to have finally been demolished during the 1960’s and replaced by rows of concrete maisonettes and multi-storey flats.

To the north of this area lay the railway wagon repair yards, which handled much of the maintenance and repair work which was required by the massive steam engines and freight wagons that transported goods throughout the region. These substantial yards were thought to have reached their zenith at the end of the 19^th Century but even as late as 1911 were still fairly extensive. A couple of the enormous engine sheds were still in place until the 21^st Century, but very much in a reduced state of repair as much of their former home had been given over to a relatively new Post Office sorting office. Sadly, within the past couple of years these remaining sheds have been finally demolished to make way for even more private housing. Across the main railway line stands the Hoole district of Chester and it was here in 1877 that a city hospital was founded for local people that were acutely ill. It later became a dedicated Geriatric Hospital, but was finally closed in around 1994 and eventually demolished, only to be replaced by private living accommodations.

Just outside the northern limits of the city, in an area known locally as the Bache, a new hospital for the mentally ill was officially opened in 1829. It was called the Chester Lunatic Asylum, which today would seem to be inappropriate, but only until 1855 when it was renamed as the Cheshire Lunatic Asylum. In 1921 after taking on the responsibility for the county it was renamed again as the County Mental Hospital. By 1959 it was known as the Deva Hospital and finally in 1965 became the West Cheshire Hospital. It is said that Edward Langtry, the estranged husband of the “Jersey Lily” Lily Langtry, the mistress of the king, spent his final days confined within the hospital having been found bruised and confused at Crewe’s main railway station. Following his untimely death Langtry was buried at the Overleigh Cemetery in Handbridge amid much public interest, with crowds gathering to see if the infamous actress would attend the service for her estranged husband. They were to be disappointed however, as Lily was said to have sent flowers, but not actually attended the sad event.

About a mile from the hospital is probably the last of Chester’s early mills to have remained in operation until modern times. Lying on “Mill Lane” in Upton, it was constructed in 1775 and was thought to have been a true Windmill, with sails to drive the milling stones. It was purchased in 1839 by a William Carter and was busy supplying local bakers through to the late 1940’s, but by that time was no longer driven by the wind, but by means of a motor. Along the main Parkgate Road which was thought to mark the path of an earlier Roman road to the Wirral Peninsula, Chester College was constructed in 1840 to educate the sons and daughters of the city’s wealthy inhabitants. Back towards the city’s northern gate, the Bluecoat School which had been originally founded by Bishop Nicholas Stafford to combat vice within Chester was restored and the figure of one of its pupils was erected above the central arch. The rows of Alms Houses at the rear of the building were said to have been rebuilt at the same time and offered housing to the very poorest of the city’s inhabitants. 

To the east of Chester in modern day Boughton the construction of workers terraced housing for the employees of the canal and railway companies was underway by the 1870’s. This part of the city was a favorite area for large numbers of Irish migrants that had come to Chester during the Potato Famine in the 1840’s, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. It was perhaps appropriate that in 1873 a new Roman Catholic Church was founded in the city close to Boughton and dedicated to St Werburgh. It has been said that the parish priest would regularly run from door to door on a Sunday morning calling for all his Catholic parishioners to get out of bed and come to church, so it seems lucky that he was on the doorstep, so to speak. A little further east was the site of the city’s gallows and stake, where those who had been found guilty of heinous crimes were executed. By the 1880’s this area too was crowded with lines of terraced housing for the city’s workers, but its brutal past was publicly acknowledged in 1893 with the unveiling of a monument to George Marsh who had been burned at the stake in the middle of the 16^th Century.

Beyond the precincts of the ancient St John’s church lay open land which was primarily owned by the Grosvenor family. The area was said to have been originally made up of fields, with the largest marked as Billy Hobby's Field, according to the 1833 plan of the city. Richard, the 2^nd Duke of Westminster was reported to have paid for the design and layout of a recreational park by the landscape designer Edward Kemp, a former pupil of Joseph Paxton, the architect of the Crystal Palace. This 20 acre complex was gifted to the city in around 1867 by the Duke, who wrote to the council; "I am desirous of placing it (the Park) in the hands of the Corporation as a gift on my part to the citizens of Chester, hoping that it may afford health and recreation to them and their families for many years to come".

Grosvenor Park continues to be regarded by many experts as one of the finest and most complete examples of Victorian parks in the whole of the United Kingdom. Although many changes have taken place since its foundation, much of the design and feature laid out by Kemp have remained intact. Many of the buildings in the park were thought to have been designed by John Douglas, a leading Victoran architect, including the Grosvenor Park Lodge, the boundary wall and gateways and the canopy to Billy Hobby's well. In the south western corner of the park complex, single arches from the long disappeared St Bridget’s church and Benedictine Nunnery stand with the city’s ancient Ship Gate and were said to have been erected in 1897. Across the new Grosvenor Park Road which had been built in the 1870’s and directly opposite the park complex, the city’s Public Baths were built in 1901, which offered the local residents an opportunity to both bathe and relax within the complex. In the 1960’s the facilities were predominantly used as swimming baths by the general public and local schoolchildren. At that time the building was thought to have been divided into two separate sections, the Pacific and the Atlantic baths, but the complex later became a private swimming club. The church of St John’s which lay along the western flank of the new park and which was thought to have stood there for well over 1000 years suffered a disastrous collapse of its western tower on Good Friday 1881 and stands today as no more than a sad reminder of the city’s glorious and historic past.

On the southern bank of the river the new suburb of Queens Park was designed and laid out by James Harrison in around 1852. It was connected to the city and the new park complex by a suspension bridge, constructed by James Dredge of Bath. The bridge that spans the river today is a replacement and was reported to have been built in 1923. This particular area of Chester always was and still remains a fairly exclusive area of the city, made up of elegantly detached houses that generally stand within their own well kept grounds. The Groves which ran along the river bank below Queens Park were heavily landscaped and improved during the late 1880’s as a tourist attraction, where visitors and local people could sit and enjoy the riverside environment. Times and tastes have obviously changed though and in the past few years the area seems to have suffered a fair degree of neglect and today appears extremely untidy and unattractive. Close to the Queens Park area the piece of land known as Edgar’s Field was donated by the Duke of Westminster to the people of Chester as a second recreational park in 1892. Said to be the site from where the Mercian king was rowed into the city by a number of subordinate monarchs, its much earlier history was confirmed through the later discovery of a heavily weathered Roman shrine cut into the local sandstone nearly 2000 years before.

Further west of Handbridge along the river, adjoining the new Grosvenor Bridge before it crossed the Dee into the city, the new Overleigh Cemetery was opened in 1850. The final resting place for some of the city’s leading citizens, today it is an extremely peaceful and well cared for place, with a large number of the attendant headstones testifying to its age. One of its more notable “internees” is said to be Edward Langtry the husband of actress Lily Langtry who was mistress to the king of England.

Along the River Dee itself, the period bore witness to three major conflagrations at the Dee Mills which finally led to their demolition in 1913. The first fire occurred on the 22^nd January 1847 and was reported to have completely destroyed one mill and caused some damage to a number of the others that stood along side. The second fire proved to be even more costly, both in terms of time and money and caused potential owners and investors to seriously question the economic viability of the industry. The third blaze, said to have occurred in 1895 was thought to have been so severe and caused so much damage that there was little if any prospect of their being reinstated as a commercial enterprise. The fate of the mills had already been sealed however, by the changes that were occurring in the wider world. Cheaper grain and the introduction of more modern production methods had all conspired to replace old fashioned, out of date systems and despite efforts on the part of some mill owners to resist progress the end result was almost inevitable. The last of the millers on the Dee was already in the process of relocating his businesses to the developing industrial site at Ellesmere Port and the fires simply represented the final nail in the mills coffin. By 1895, an industry that was thought to have existed in the city for well over 800 years was at an end. In 1913 the mills buildings were finally removed and a hydro-electric power station was later constructed on the site under the supervision of Sydney Britton, the city’s municipal engineer.

Chester’s extensive new castle complex was thought to have been fairly complete by the time Victoria had come to the throne and it was the areas outside of the castle that were then the subject of new developments. By 1884 the gaol that had been built by Thomas Harrison had been closed, along with the relatively new prison that had been constructed on City Walls Road. The site of this second prison was later used as the location for the Queens School which was constructed in 1882. In 1857 a new Militia Building was built outside the castle precincts, on the site of the earlier medieval Benedictine Nunnery. Constructed to house the families of the troops who were garrisoned at the castle, the Militia Building was later demolished to make way for the Cheshire Police Headquarters which was built in the early 1960’s and which has always been regarded as a bit of a local eyesore.

Standing between the later Police Headquarters and the gateway to Chester Castle is a bronze statue of the mounted Stapleton Cotton, Viscount Combermere, which was erected in 1865. The second son of Robert Cotton of Combermere Abbey in Cheshire, Stapleton began his military career at 16 years of age, serving as a Second Lieutenant with the Welsh Fusiliers. He later purchased a Captaincy with the 6^th Dragoon Guards and served in Flanders during the campaigns of the Duke of York. Still in his early twenties he was said to have been a comrade of the king George III and served with the Light Dragoons at Cape Colony in 1796. Three years later he was involved with the storming of Seringapatam and following the death of his brother became heir to the Baronetcy and returned home to England.

Cotton then undertook further military service while helping to suppress a rebellion in Ireland and by 1805 was thought to have achieved the lofty rank of Major General. In 1808 he was said to be campaigning in Portugal and was promoted once again, to the rank of Commander serving under Wellington. He was cited for his actions during the Battle of Salamanca in 1812 and was wounded shortly after the conflict. Within two years he was reported to have been raised to the peerage and by 1817 he had been appointed as Governor of Barbados. Between 1822 and 1825 he was thought to have been commanding British troops in Ireland, but actually ended his military career in India. His capture of the seemingly impregnable fortress at Bhurtporea was said to be so remarkable that he was created a Viscount and by 1834 had been appointed as a Privy Councilor. In 1855 he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and 10 years later was reported to have died peacefully at his home at Clifton on 21^st February 1865 aged 92 years old.

The Castle at Chester, although not directly attacked, was thought to have been the target for an unsuccessful Republican Plot which was said to have taken place around 1867. The Liverpool based group reportedly planned to seize the castle complex with a force of up to 2000 sympathizers who were said to be located within the northwest region. Under the command of experienced Irish-American Officers that had all served during the American Civil War, 300 armed men were ordered to meet in Chester and seize the arms store of the city’s local volunteer force. Using these weapons, they were then supposed to overpower the small military garrison that held the castle’s armory and steal the thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition that were stored there.

The rest of the Republicans force was ordered to isolate Chester from the rest of the country by cutting all communication links to the outside world, including the telegraph lines and railway links. The main body of the force was also ordered to hijack a train so that the stolen arms and munitions could be transported out of the city and then taken to Holyhead in North Wales and put on a boat to Ireland.

Unfortunately for the gang, one of the ring-leaders in Liverpool was said to have betrayed the group, so that when the men arrived in Chester on the 11^th February, they found the authorities waiting for them. Their primary objective, the volunteer arms stores had been removed and the local police, militia and regular troops from Manchester had been mobilized to deal with the threat. Although many of the Republican leaders were said to have escaped the city, they found it difficult to try and contact the remainder of their men which resulted in large numbers of their secondary force arriving in Chester, unaware that their plot had been foiled. Once they realized that the plan had been discovered many of these Republicans disposed of their arms and made their way out of the city as `quickly as possible. By the following day, the 12^th February, some 500 troops from London had arrived in Chester to secure the city, but the emergency was over and the Republicans had already dispersed.

Later, in around 1872 the castle complex was thought to have been be used as a training centre for new military recruits and although its role as a strategically important position had become diminished, Chester would later become the headquarters for Western Command in England and would remain a major administrative and logistical centre for the armed forces. The Chester Tramways Company were said to have operated horse drawn carriages from the castle to the city’s railway stations from 1879 and later on extended these routes through to Saltney on the outskirts of Chester. In 1901 Castle Drive was constructed to link the Grosvenor Bridge with the Old Dee Bridge crossing and in the process provided an elegant and attractive journey along the banks of the river, bypassing the remains of the castles standing medieval wall and the newly built County Hall Building.

In 1861 the church of St Mary’s on-the-hill had been restored by the architect James Harrison and 4 years later he would be responsible for the total rebuilding of Holy Trinity church in Watergate Street. This building was later reported to have been deconsecrated and today stands as the city’s Guild Hall. In 1868 the Custom’s House, the historic home of Chester’s Port Controller, was reported to have been rebuilt by Harrison at the western end of Watergate Street, next door to Holy Trinity church. The building had once housed the administrative centre for the city’s harbor and the port officers would check the ships cargoes that were going in and out of Chester, to determine the taxes due and arrange for the appropriate levies to be paid. Another of his projects in Watergate Street was thought to have been Gods Providence House which Harrison was said to have restored in 1908. The inscription on the front of the building was placed there by the Chandler who owned the property and was by way of thanking God for sparing its occupants from an outbreak of plague.

To the west of the Guild Hall stood the then relatively new Linen Hall which had been built to house the linen merchants and traders that had brought so much prosperity to Chester in the past. By 1830 however, the cloth trades in the city were thought to be in serious decline, following the relocation of the Irish linen trade from Dublin to Belfast, which had pre-existing links with the port of Liverpool. Chester had made much of its position as the main trading centre for the extremely popular Irish linen in England and the loss of this large-scale commercial business was a major blow to its economy. A number of the city’s traditional trades were also beginning to see the effects of the new economic reality that was dawning around the region. Chester’s established industries like leather dressing were beginning to disappear from the city and others like glove-making had chosen to relocate to other towns and cities. From 1814 to around 1830 the ship-building industries located on the banks of the newly cut river channel were thought to have been extremely small scale and very specialized, comprising mainly of inshore craft or flat bottomed boats that could operate in shallow water. In 1869 the last of the city’s ship building companies was in the hands of a Liverpool based enterprise and following their successful launch of a series of iron hulled river boats from the Dee yard they finally ended an industry that had existed in the city for hundreds of years.

As these “historic” trades and industries eventually and inevitably disappeared from the city they were in part replaced by the new and emerging businesses that were exploiting the latest technologies of the age. By 1870 there were said to have been at least 10 or 12 engineering and foundry companies operating in and around the city, who were helping to meet the growing need for hydraulic and mechanical engineering schemes which were a feature of the Victorian period. Rather typically though, only a small number of these businesses seem to have had the foresight to locate themselves in areas which offered them the opportunity to expand and further develop their transport links in the coming years.

By the 1850’s the population of the city was thought to have increased dramatically as a direct result of the new employment opportunities that were being offered by the large numbers of retail, transport and industrial companies that were establishing themselves in Chester. These increasing levels were added to by the arrival of significant number of Irish migrants who were escaping the famine in Ireland and had come to the city in the hope of making a new life for themselves. Prior to the construction of later decent low cost housing by the local authorities, the provision of accommodation was very much in the hands of a small number of private landlords within the city, who were able to monopolize and exploit the marketplace to their own advantage. Because of the high demand created by a growing population, unscrupulous landowners and builders were able to build poor quality, high density housing on vacant plots around the city and pack in as many tenants as possible. As the quality of life within the city diminished, its wealthier residents were reported to have moved out to the suburbs and their former homes were simply bought up to be converted into even more low quality accommodation. The areas around Crook Street, Princess Street and Commonhall Street in Chester were all reported to have been crammed with, what can only be described as “slum” housing and that remained the case through to the 20^th Century, when new social housing became the responsibility of the local council. Levels of criminality and wrongdoing were thought to be greater in these parts of the city and Chester was said to have housed a large number of fences, thieves and brothels within these poorer sections. The only area of the city that managed to escape such building was the north east section of Chester and only because the lands there were generally owned by the Cathedral authorities and were not readily available to these unscrupulous landlords and builders.

For the corporation and those that owned businesses within Chester, this sudden explosion of poor quality housing and general criminality around the city was of great concern, as it impacted directly on the value of their own properties and made the city’s streets unattractive to both visitor and customer alike. During the 1840’s a series of new ordinances and regulations were said to have been drafted to address these concerns, the most important of which was the 1845 Improvement Act which prohibited any further building of these “courts” as they were commonly known. The act also set down the required standards for businesses within the city and ensured that features which might spoil the city’s attractiveness were removed from the streets. During an outbreak of Cholera in 1848, the city’s proactive attitude in trying to rid the city of these slums was no doubt a major factor in reducing the numbers of deaths that actually occurred within Chester. By 1854 the sewerage system had finally been completed throughout the city and it was a matter of some regret that incompetence on the part of some council employees had prevented the system from being completed earlier. In 1872 the new Public Health Act finally gave local authorities the power to remove slum housing which might present a potential health risk to the local population. These Chester “courts” were systematically cleared by the corporation and their sites later used for new commercial enterprises, schools and churches.

Perhaps not surprisingly, as the population and visitor numbers grew there was an appropriate increase in the numbers of Public Houses and Hotels that served these new markets. By 1840 there were said to be well over 200 Pubs around the city and these were themselves serviced by around 15 local breweries. A number of these establishments would eventually disappear as the retail centre was further developed or because of natural disasters occurring within the city. The destruction of the Exchange Building by fire in 1862 was the most notable, given that it had stood since 1695 and was said to have been the heart of both local government and commercial enterprise. A competition to find its replacement was won by W H Lynn of Belfast, whose new civic building was said to have been inspired by the medieval Cloth Hall at Ypres in Belgium. His 13^th Century Gothic style design, with its clock tower and sloping roofs is particularly unique, as it only has three clock faces. The western side is blank, because supposedly; Chester won’t give the Welsh the time of day. The new Town Hall was finally finished in 1869 and Edward, the Prince of Wales and future Edward VII officially opened it in that year. Two notable Inns that were sacrificed for this new civic building were said to have been the White Lion Hotel, which was thought to be the city’s main Coaching Inn and the Saracen’s Head which had a extensive and popular history in the centre of Chester.

The Market Hall, which sat alongside the new Town Hall had itself only been constructed in 1863 and was built to house the city’s market traders, including the greengrocers and butchers who in past times had hawked their wares on the market’s public square. A truly magnificent building with a soaring roof that echoed to the noise of its many vendors, the Hall would finally be a victim of the 1960’s building revolution which saw elegant buildings replaced by uniform units of concrete and glass. The associated underground parking bays of the later Forum shopping centre required the wholesale “scouring” of the natural bedrock in this area of the city and finally saw the end of much of the historic archaeology that lay below the surface. The only positive thing that was said to have come out of the scheme was that Chester’s Archaeology department was able to examine, record and map the history of the site, before it was once again covered over.

The middle decades of the 19^th Century witnessed a spate of new buildings and redevelopments throughout the city. In 1854, Dee House just outside of the south east sector of the walls was converted to an Ursuline Convent which would later devote itself to educating the daughters of the city’s upper classes. The building itself has become enmeshed in controversy over the past 60 or 70 years, because of its position in relation to the historic Roman amphitheatre. Dee House itself is a listed building and is therefore protected by statute, but unfortunately the house and part of its lands sit directly above the southern section of the amphitheatre, which has recently been excavated at its northern end and is now treated as a major tourist attraction by the city authorities. It is to their credit that Chester’s ring road system which was built in the 1960’s was diverted around the site and so conserved this ancient monument. In June 1929 a workman who was carrying out some work at the Ursuline Convent School came across a Roman coin that was buried in the cellar of the building and because he was so intrigued, showed the find to a local archaeologist. Further investigations of the site uncovered large sections of heavy sandstone walls which were said to be nearly 8 feet thick and dating from around the first century BC. Four decades later, the site was finally cleared to expose the ancient structures that lay below ground and in 1972 the site was officially opened for the general public to view.

Close to Chester Cathedral, the city’s Theatre Royal was redeveloped as a new Music Hall in 1855 and was itself sited on the old foundations of the 13^th Century St Nicholas’s Chapel which had formerly stood there. Today the building is employed as a retail unit by a high street chain store. A short distance away, the eastern side of St Werburgh Street leading to Eastgate Street was said to have been designed and developed by the renowned local architect John Douglas in the 1880’s. The former Linen Hall, workshops and warehouses that had previously stood in the area were swept away and replaced by the half-timbered shops and offices that remain in the city today. Douglas was also responsible for the redesigning and reconstruction of the former “Shoemakers Row” which stood on the western side of lower Northgate Street in 1899. In the Cathedral building itself, extensive renovations were reported to have been undertaken by Sir George Gilbert Scott and in the ancient Lady Chapel around 1868, his work uncovered evidence of a Roman floor, a drain and traces of a road running diagonally under the south eastern buttress of the Cathedral. Scott also discovered that many parts of the former Abbey had no foundations to speak of and that the whole areas needed serious underpinning. Some 40 years later, Scott’s grandson was reported to have undertaken remedial work within the Cathedral and helped to restore both its historic refectory and cloisters

In Eastgate Street, the new Grosvenor Hotel was reported to have been built in 1863 on the site of the former Royal and White Talbot Hotels and was constructed in response to the continued growth of the tourist trade within the city. Large parts of the area lying on the southern side of the main thoroughfare were owned by the Grosvenor family who would be so influential in the planning and implementation of many of the future developments within Chester. The city’s East Gate which had been largely financed by the Grosvenor’s and which stood only yards from their new city centre hotel was further embellished in 1897 by the addition of the world famous clock that exists today. Built to celebrate Victoria’s 60^th anniversary, it is said that the clock was not officially started until her birthday on the 27^th May had arrived. Another building within the city that bears the Grosvenor name is the Museum which was built in 1885. The building houses many of the historic artifacts that have been found in the numerous archaeological excavations that have taken place in and around Chester.

A fountain in the form of a dolphin was reported to have been donated to the city by a former Lord Mayor of Chester and was said to have been sited at the southern end of Bridge Street around 1860. A little over 100 years later however, it was removed and presumably disposed of to make way for the Chester ring road which was constructed in the early 1960’s. The nearby Pepper Street or Newgate Street area had already seen enormous changes, even before this new ring road cut through the area and in 1864, the old Albion Hotel and its extensive gardens had been demolished to make way for terraced workers housing, some of which continue to exist today. The Volunteer’s Drill Hall, a home for the city’s irregular artillery and rifle forces was thought to have been built around the same time, but unlike much of the area, did not immediately fall victim to the later ring road scheme. Many of the workers terraced houses which lay adjacent to the proposed route were simply demolished, as were those that lay on the opposite side of the street, close to the remains of the Roman bath houses.

The local architect T M Lockwood was the man thought to be responsible for the development of the city’s High Cross area, including the eastern side of Bridge Street and on down along Eastgate Street. Directly opposite, Lockwood also undertook the improvement of the western side of Bridge Street, including its junction with Watergate Street. The mix of stone, brick and timbers in his buildings helped to create the unique Chester “look” which has long since become synonymous with the city itself. A later project at St Michael’s Row in Bridge Street which was undertaken by Lockwood in 1910 was so different to this earlier work that there was general uproar amongst the corporation and the business community. Such was the controversy that the landowner, the Duke of Westminster, ordered Lockwood to demolish the buildings and to reconstruct them in the accepted half-timbered style, which was then completed by 1914. One of the oldest Inns in Chester was said to have been demolished to make way for the new shop fronts, elevated rows and St Michael’s Arcade in Bridge Street. The Feathers Hotel was thought to have been well over 200 years old and one of the most popular Coaching Inns in Chester at the time of its demolition.

These costly and extensive redevelopments tended to make the resulting properties expensive to rent, which was said to have impacted directly on the large numbers of smaller businesses that had previously occupied the sites. Many of them were subsequently forced to relocate to less expensive areas of the city, including Watergate and Lower Bridge Streets, neither of which had been substantially improved in the earlier decades. The south end of Lower Bridge Street, closest to the river, was reported to be markedly run down and as such attracted little passing trade for the businesses that existed there. Even through to the late 1960’s many of these premises were known to be in extremely poor condition or were simply left vacant and boarded up.

The Chester Cottage Improvement Company was founded in 1892 and sought to build low cost, high quality residential housing in the city for local workers and in 1901 the Love Street Cottages were said to have been designed and constructed by John Douglas. These small terraced properties are still in the city today and located along Love Street and the Grosvenor Park Road. 7 years later and just around the corner from these initial buildings, the same architect was responsible for the construction of the Bath Street houses, which are built of sandstone and topped with conical roof turrets. Towards the eastern end of Foregate Street, another of Douglas’ projects was reported to be Parker’s Building, a series of workers apartments that were built on the site of a former city brewery owned by the Sellars family and they remain occupied through to the present day. The second half of the 19^th Century also saw the relocation of the city’s workhouse, from its site close to the Roodee, to a new location in Hoole Lane on the other side of Chester. The old workhouse premises were then said to have been rented out by the corporation to local businesses to be used as workshops and warehousing space.

Away from the city itself, the outer suburb of Saltney was by the 1840’s beginning to develop a small-scale industrial capacity that attracted both work and prosperity to the wider area. In around 1847 the Woods Anchor and Chain Company was said to have established itself there, drawn by the presence of the new canal system and a railway link which could carry materials and product in and out of their business premises. Within a few years, more new firms were relocating themselves in Saltney including three coal oil companies, an ammonia plant and a bone manure factory. By 1847 a locomotive and carriage repair works, owned by the Chester and Shrewsbury Railway Company had also sited their workshops there.

The wider area was thought to have been helped by the approval in 1911 of smallholding plots around the Lache area of Chester, which encouraged the development of small scale rural activities and which greatly added to the general diversity of the suburb itself. All around the city, the main roads leading in and out of Chester were being occupied by people that could afford to live out in the suburbs. Curzon Park and the immediate area around it, became the exclusive preserve of the well-to-do and generally remains so through to the present day.

As with the much vaunted “New Cut” river scheme and the regional canal systems, Chester only seemed to derive short-term and marginal benefits from the industries that chose to locate their businesses in the city. It seems to have often be the case that a number of these enterprises were sited in Chester simply as a result of the city’s improved quality of life which it offered to their owners, rather than for any obvious commercial consideration and almost inevitably led to many of these new businesses failing at some point in time. In the years following Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, many of these new transient industries had come and gone and the city of Chester was once again forced to fall back on the retail and tourist industries that had become such a fundamental part of its economy.

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