April 24-26 – Chester, England. Today we are in Chester. It's an old city. It was founded in 79AD as a Roman fort. The four main roads of the city are still on the plan laid out by the Romans. It was one of the last places to be conquered by the Normans. It has several medieval buildings and the old city walls are still intact save for one stretch about the length of a football field. Walking around the wall is a common pastime and we did exactly that when we were here 20 years ago.
Because it's old the streets are even narrower than usual in England and parking is inconvenient and expensive. We've gotten on to the Park & Ride system and it works great. First of all it's convenient, not to mention less expensive. One difference here is that you don't have to deal with the refund of you parking because there's no charge.
Ever since I was a kid I have loved half-timbered buildings and Chester may be the epicenter for them in England. The examples here are mostly Jacobean in design. Many of the buildings in the old city are from the Victorian Era.
The Park & Ride bus dropped us off just outside the walled city's Eastgate. I was disappointed to see the beautiful Victorian clock over the gate is wrapped in tarps and undergoing restoration. The round arched gate has a great wrought iron railing and the structure holding the clock aloft is also wrought iron. It's the only really clear memory I have of the last time we visited. Well that's one of the hazards of touring in Europe. No matter where you go or when you go some significant structures are going to be covered in scaffolding or tarps. If you're really unlucky and there's some sort of soccer tournament going on things may be obscured by huge outdoor TV screens erected in the middle of wonderful medieval squares ruining the view from almost any angle.
One unique feature of the city is The Rows. They're found nowhere else in Britain. Along one side of Eastgate Street the buildings have shops on the first and second floors. The first floor of the building is about half below the street level and you enter these shops from the side walk by going down a short flight of stairs. Running a few feet above the side walk on the shop side is a broad boardwalk that allows direct entrance to the second floor shops. To get to the boardwalk you take a few steps up from the sidewalk. To accommodate this upper walk the second story shops are set back from the first and third story part of the building. This may exist elsewhere but I've never seen it.
Chester's two main buildings are the Cathedral and the Town Hall. They are located very close to each other in the center of town. Chester Cathedral (formally known as the Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary) was founded as a Benedictine Abby in 1092. The original structure was Romanesque with the typical round arches. By the time they built the Chapter House the Gothic pointed arch was used. They decided that the entire church should be rebuilt in the Gothic style and started at one end with the update. Just after they finished the rebuilding Henry disbanded the monasteries starting in 1536 and the church was closed. It was saved from the destruction that befell many of the monasteries and churches because Henry raised its status to cathedral in 1541.
The one thing they have that we haven't seen much of is mosaics. The entire north wall is covered in very nice Pre-Raphaelite mosaics showing Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah. Each has nine panels in three rows and columns of varying sizes. The central row is the tallest of the three by far. In the right and left panels are scenes from his life and the center panel, a very narrow one is a likeness of the prophet. The bottom row is very narrow and has geometric designs on the left and right and the prophet's name in the center. The top row is a little wider than the bottom and on the right and left are biblical figures related to the prophet, in Abraham's case, Sarah his wife on the right and Melchizedek, the king and priest of God who blessed Abraham. The center panel in this row is usually a building.
The most unique thing there is the Consistory Court, the only intact one in England. The entire room is taken up by wooded structures. On one side, right under the window there's a raised, canopied chair. This was the Chancellor's seat. On either side of his chair there are small desks for his clerks. In front of his chair is a large square table with benches built into the low wooden wall that surrounds the entire area. In the corner of this low wall nearest the door there's a legless chair mounted on the corner of the wall. This seat was for the Apparitor. From this vantage point he could see not only everyone in the court but also the witnesses gathering outside the door. It was his job to see that everything ran smoothly. It was an ecclesiastical court charged with keeping church discipline and covered areas such as heresy, matrimonial matters, probate, slander and the upkeep of church properties. Most judgments involved a fine and restitution but for heresy the penalty was death.
We walked across the square from the cathedral to the Town Hall. It's still in use although mostly for ceremonial purposes and its main rooms can be rented and the hall is licensed for weddings. There's a lot of very fine woodwork and stained glass in the building but the room I liked best was the old courtroom. It looks just like the courtrooms you see on period piece British drama, Poriot and the like. Everybody had their own little wooden enclosure to sit in. The dock, where the accused stands, is connected by stairs to the jail below so he comes directly into his private space.
It's a pretty cold and windy day outside so we opted to go into a local shopping mall where Diana could look in the stores and I could look at the people. Hop on the P&R bus and a short drive and we're home.
It rained on the 25-26th so we decided to head to the mall by the hotel and see some movies. We saw two movies each day and walked around a bit. We saw: 1. The DUFF, a funny, cute high school movie that was enjoyable; 2. The Woman in Gold, an excellent movie and true story. Great acting, well written. Best of this bunch; 3. Paul Blart, Mall Cop 2, rather silly but had some funny moments, it was ok; 4. Fast and Furious 7, First of all I haven't seen any of the first 6 but 2.5 hours of cars racing, improbable escapes, guns blazing. If it had been shorter it might have been better but I guess it wasn't aimed at old fogies like me. (Shirley and Ken, they were all better than Interstellar!).
Next target, Oxford. Gosh I love that place.
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