Chester is the county town of Cheshire, England. Situated on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, Chester is one of the best-preserved walled cities in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement of the wider City of Chester, and has a total population of 80,121.
Chester is perhaps most notable for its successive historic uses and occupations, and the subsequent variety of architectural monuments found within the settlement.
The patron saint of Chester is Saint Werburgh. The city's motto is 'Antiqui Colant Antiquum Dierum', which translates as 'Let the Ancients worship the Ancient of Days'. The adjective associated with the city is Cestrian.
Geography and administrationAccording to the 2001 census the population of the Chester urban area was 90,925, 80,121 of whom were identified as living in Chester, and the rest in Broughton or Saltney. This makes the second largest settlement in in Cheshire after Warrington. Although Chester is a city and Warrington is not. The wider City of Chester district has a population of around 120,000.
Present dayA considerable amount of land in Chester is owned by Duke of Westminster who owns an estate at Eaton near the village of Eccleston. Grosvenor is the Duke's family name, which explains such features in the City such as the Grosvenor Hotel and Grosvenor Park. Much of Chester's architecture dates from the Victorian era, with many of the buildings that aren't modelled on the Jacobean half timbered style of the medieval times being designed by John Douglas, employed by the Duke as his principal architect. He had a trademark of twisted chimneystacks, many of which can be seen on the buildings in the City centre. Douglas designed amongst other buildings the Grosvenor Hotel and the City Baths. His protege James Strong a city architect in 1911 designed the former fire station on the west side of Northgate Street. Another feature of all buildings belonging to the estate of Westminster is the 'Grey Diamonds'; a weaving pattern of grey bricks in the red brickwork, laid out in a diamond formation. By 1945 two problems needed attention, namely affordable housing and traffic congestion. As a result vast areas of slums were cleared and in 1964 an inner by-pass was driven through and around the City centre. Large areas of open fields on the outskirts of the City were turned into residential areas in the 1950s and early 1960s producing, for instance, Blacon.
In the late 1960s the City authorities realised that new developments were radically altering the look of the City centre. In 1968 Donald Insall published a report in collaboration with the City authorities and central government. His report recommended preserving historic buildings and finding new uses for them, rather than tearing them down.
In 1969 the City Conservation Area was designated. Over the next 20 years the emphasis was placed on saving historic buildings, such as The Falcon Inn, Dutch Houses and Kings Buildings.
On January 13, 2002, Chester was granted Fairtrade City status. This status was renewed by the Fairtrade Foundation on August 20, 2003.
In August 2005 the council announced plans to demolish the police station, an unsightly edifice built in the 1960s. However, the replacement building, a cylindrical glass hotel/cafe, has sparked controversy, partly due to the large number of other glass structures planned within the city, especially the new council offices.
The Northgate development will demolish the old Council Offices, which will move into a new building on an old car-park. This structure was unpopular with many of the older citizens of Chester, leading to a poem by local writer, Gordon Emery, in the Chester Standard dubbing it the 'Glass Slug'. The name has stuck.
Cestrians are often perceived (partly-jokingly) of being 'anti-Welsh' although many have Welsh ancestors. This is exemplified by the fact that the Town Hall clock does not face west, towards Wales, and an archaic law which states any Cestrian may shoot a Welshman with a longbow if he loiters within the walls after sunset when the curfew bell chimes (although this law no-longer offers legal protection against prosecution for murder). However, many Cestrians work and shop in Wales, and Chester shares a radio station with Wrexham, Wales.
Chester is twinned with the French town of Sens, Loerrach in Germany, Lakewood, Colorado in the United States and Senigallia, Italy.
Culture ShoppingThe city is a popular shopping centre, with its unique 'Rows' or galleries (basically two levels of shops) which date from medieval times. The city is heavily populated by chain stores both in the centre and on retail parks to the west, and also features two indoor shopping centres, an indoor market and a department store, Browns of Chester, once known as 'the Harrods of the North', now absorbed by the Debenhams chain. There are two main indoor shopping centres, The Grosvenor Mall and the Forum. The latter refers to the city's Roman past, and is to be demolished in the Northgate Development to make way for new shopping streets, a new indoor market, a new library and a performing arts centre.
Arts & SportThe city has two cinemas and a theatre, the Gateway Theatre, and in the summer the city hosts the annual Chester Music Festival, the Chester Midsummer Watch Parade and the Chester Mystery Plays, the latter of which dates from medieval times. Numerous pubs and wine bars populate the city, some of which are medieval, and Chester also has some night-clubs. Also to the east side of the city are the UK's largest zoological gardens, Chester Zoo. Chester has its own film society. The Gateway Theatre is due to be demolished at the end of 2006 as part of the city's Northgate Development. The Northgate Development will include a replacement arts centre, due to open in 2009.
The city features the Grosvenor Museum, which contains exhibitions about the city's Roman past and a reconstructed Georgian house. The Dewa Roman Experience, completely dedicated to the city's Roman heritage, is also based in the centre of the city, as is the Chester Heritage Centre and the Cheshire Military Museum.
The city has a football team, Chester City F.C., who play in the Saunders Honda Stadium , a national basketball team, the Chester Jets, who play in the city's Northgate Arena leisure centre and a wheelchair basketball team, the Chester Wheelchair Jets[1]. Chester also boast a successful Hockey Club Chester HC who play at the County Officers' Club on Plas Newton Lane.
The River Dee is also home to several rowing clubs, notably Grosvenor Rowing Club and Royal Chester Rowing Club as well as two school ones 'King's Chester Rowing Club' and 'Queen's Park High Rowing Club'. The weir is regularly used by a number of local canoe and kayak clubs.
MusicBritpop band Mansun are probably the most famous band to come from Chester. Forming in 1995 and disbanding in 2003, their most recognised hit was 'Wide Open Space', which peaked at number 15 in the UK charts in 1996.
Russ Morgan, a member of notable house music band K-Klass, also hails from Chester.
MediaChester's newspapers are the daily Chester Evening Leader, the weekly Chester Chronicle, and the free newspapers Chester Mail and Chester Standard. Dee 106.3 is the city's own radio station, with Wrexham's Marcher Sound and BBC Radio Merseyside also broadcasting locally. Chester is the city where Channel 4's soap-opera Hollyoaks is set (although most filming takes place around Liverpool).
IndustryThe city's main industries are retail, tourism and financial services. Chester's main employer is MBNA Europe. There is also a large Shell oil refinery, several large financial firms including HBOS plc, M&S Money and also a chemical factory, operated by ICI to the north of Chester near Ellesmere Port. Just over the Welsh border to the west near the village of Broughton there is an aerospace factory (formerly British Aerospace), where the wings of Airbus aircraft, including the Airbus A380 super-jumbo are manufactured, and there are food processing plants to the north and west.
Chester has its own university, the University of Chester, and a major hospital, the Countess of Chester Hospital, named after Princess Diana, Countess of Chester.
TransportChester has a railway station to the North East of the city centre, designed by Francis Thompson with an impressive Italianate frontage dating from 1848, though the interior is somewhat dilapidated, having lost a roof in the Chester General rail crash. Trains go from here along the North Wales Coast Line, as well as to London Euston, Liverpool, Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Wrexham General and Shrewsbury. Chester Northgate station closed in 1969, was demolished and is now the site of the Northgate Arena leisure centre.
Bus transport in the city is provided by the council owned and operated ChesterBus (formerly Chester City Transport) as well as First Group and Arriva. There is to be a new bus exchange built in the city as well as a new coach station.
The city is also a hub for major roads, including the M53 from Liverpool, the M56 towards Manchester, and the A55 which runs along the North Wales coast to Holyhead.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chester had an extensive tram network from Saltney in the west at the Welsh border to Chester General station, Tarvin Road and Great Boughton in the North West. This network featured the narrowest gauge trams (3'6) in mainland Britain, due to an act of Parliament which deemed that they must be 'The least obstructive possible'. The tramway was established in 1871 by Chester Tramways Corporation. At first, the tramway was horse-drawn, although this was replaced by overhead-wired electric in 1903. The tramway was closed like most others in the UK in February, 1930. The only remains are small areas of uncovered track inside the bus depot, a few tram wire supports attached to buildings on Eastgate/Foregate Street and a wire support.
Recent DiscoveriesA Saxon cross dating to the 10th /11th Century has been unearthed by archaeologists in Tarvin (5.5 Miles from Chester). The find is very rare and was found in a civil war trench. The Saxon cross may have been broken up before the assault of Chester in 1645 by the Parliamentary garrison.
Famous Cestrians
