The River Dee: Its Aspect and History (page 1/3)

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Ancient Half-Timbered Houses, Foregate Street

“Turning now from the outside of the walls to the inside, we must remember that the four Roman Streets, intersecting one another at right angles, have always been the features which determined the whole interior character of the city. Only we must add to this fact that at the intersection was the “Hich Cross” itself—a structure of stone, which [...] [more...] [$]

Heron Bridge

Heron Bridge appears to be just South of Chester, near Chester Meadows, probably in what is now called Handbridge, near Boughton. [more...] [$]

Chester Cathedral Tower from St. John’s Street

A narrow cobbled street with black-and-white half-timbered buildings, an overhanging turret with a percariously-mounted lamp, a heavily-laden cart pulled by two horses, and in the background, with birds wheeling about it, the tower of Chester cathedral. Perhaps this street had [...] [more...] [$]

Cathedral from the N.E. and part of City Wall.

“[...] there is good reason to believe that during the Roman occupation of Chester, a church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, stood upon this spot; and most interesting it is thus to connect this ground with the early Christianity of the Apostles of the gentiles, so large a part of whose life was spent among Roman soldiers, and whose name must [...] [more...] [$]

Ruins of St. John’s, from the Grosvenor Park,

bwpics has a history and more pictures of this ruined church which was heavily ‘restored’ in the 19th century.

“[...] we find in St. John’s Church a permanent and very grand memorial of the Early Norman period [i.e. approx. 1070 – 1100 — Liam]. In Saxon times Chester was included, with all the extensive tract of Mercia, in the Diocese which acknowledged allegiance to the great see of St. Chad: but with the early Norman kings came a change that made Chester a definite centre of episcopal jurisdiction. [...]

“Chester [...] still retains, on the very edge of its historic river, a striking monument of its early diocesan dignity. The gigantic round Norman piers of the Nave stand just as they stood in the days of William Rufus; and the fine Triforium above belongs yo a period not much later; and though large portions of this structure have been destroyed, and though its partial restoration in modern times [1875] is unworthy of its ancient grandeur, yet in two respects this church cannot fail to make a great impression on all who see it.

“The ruins at the East-end, recently extricated from heaps of rubbish and the growth of trees, are now a recognised ornament of Chester, near the new park which is laid out on a table-land above the banks of the Dee; while the lofty tower, erect though mouldering, and still showing in parts some [more...] [$]