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Chester

James Boswell, Dr Johnson’s biographer, visited Chester in the 1770s and wrote “I was quite enchanted at Chester, so that I could with difficulty quit it”. He was to return again, declaring that “Chester pleases my fancy more than any town I ever saw”. Modern visitors will almost certainly share his enthusiasm.

Probably the best introduction to this compact little city is to join one of the frequent sightseeing tours conducted by a Blue Badge guide. These take place every day, even Christmas Day, and leave from the Chester Visitor Centre. The Centre can also provide you with a wealth of information about the city, including a full calendar of events that range from the Chester Regatta, the oldest rowing races in the world,  to the Lord Mayor’s Show in May and the Festival of Transport, featuring an amazing parade of vintage cars, in August. Chester Racecourse is the Roodee, on the site of Roman wharves, and is Britain’s oldest sporting venue, with races first held in 1540.

Towering above the city centre is Chester Cathedral, a majestic building of weathered pink stone which in 1992 celebrated its 900th birthday. It was originally an abbey and is one of very few to survive Henry VIII’s closure of the monasteries in the 1540s. The cloisters are regarded as the finest in England and the monks’ refectory is still serving food although nowadays it is refreshments and lunches for visitors. There’s a fine 14th century shrine to St Werbergh, the princess/abbess who founded the first church on this site in Saxon times, and some intricately carved Quire stalls almost 800 years old which are reckoned to be the best preserved in Britain. It was at Chester Cathedral, in 1742, that George Frederick Handel personally conducted rehearsals of his oratorio The Messiah before its first performance in Dublin: a copy of the score with annotations in his own hand remains on display.

Another curiosity in the cathedral is painting of the Madonna and Child on a moth’s web. The ermine moth produces a web whose filaments are rather thicker and tougher than those of other moths. It’s known that this extraordinary work of art was produced in the Tyrol in the 1700s when there was something of a vogue for this unusual medium.

The Grosvenor Museum has furnished period rooms, an exhibition on the life of a Roman legionary, a gallery of paintings by local contemporary artists, crafts and other artefacts connected with Chester. Occupying the former parish chuch of St Michael, the Chester Heritage Centre tells the city’s story from the Civil War siege to the present day.  Chester Toy Museum is a nostalgic treasure-house of antique playthings, including dolls from 1860 to 1950 and also boasts the largest collection of Matchbox model cars in the world. The Cheshire Military Museum recounts the story of the four famous regiments in the area and computers, tableaux and hands-on exhibits to present the soldier’s life through the last 300 years. At the Dewa Roman Experience visitors can relive the sights, sounds and even the smells of daily life in Roman Chester.

Quite apart from its historical attractions, Chester is also one of the major shopping centres for the north west and north Wales. All the familiar High Street names are here, often housed in much more appealing buildings than they usually inhabit, along with a great number of specialist and antique shops. For a unique shopping experience you must visit the world-famous, two-tiered galleries of shops under covered walkways known as The Rows which line both sides of Bridge Street. The Rows are an architectural one-off: no other medieval town has anything like them. Many of the black and white, half-timbered frontages of The Rows, so typical of Chester and Cheshire, are actually Victorian restorations, but crafted so beautifully and faithfully that even experts can have difficulty distinguishing them from their 13th century originals.

Close by is the Eastgate Clock. It was erected in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and is a beautifully ornate construction which is probably the most photographed timepiece in the world. If your timing is right and you arrive hereabouts at 12 noon in the summer, you should see, and certainly hear, the Town Crier delivering some stentorian civic message.

A few steps from the Eastgate Clock bring you to Chester’s famous City Walls which were originally built by the Romans to protect the fortress of Deva (Dewa) from attacks by pesky Celtic tribes. Nowadays, the two-mile long circuit – an easy, level promenade, provides thousands of visitors with some splendid views of the River Dee, of the city’s many glorious buildings and of the distant Welsh mountains. Here, during the summer months, you may come across Caius Julius Quartus, a Roman Legionary Officer in shining armour conducting a patrol around the fortress walls and helping to re-create the life and times of a front-line defender of the Empire. At one point, the wall runs alongside St John Street, which has a curious history. In Roman times it was the main thoroughfare between the fortress and the Amphitheatre, the largest ever uncovered in Britain, capable of seating 7000 spectators. During the Middle Ages however this highway was excavated and turned into a defensive ditch. Over the years, the ditch gradually filled up and by Elizabethan times St John Street was a proper street once again.

No visit to Chester would be complete without a trip to Chester Zoo on the northern edge of the city. Set in 110 acres of landscaped gardens, it’s the largest zoo in Britain, caring for more than 7000 animals from some 400 different species. The Zoo also provides a refuge for many rare and endangered animals which breed freely in near-natural enclosures. What’s more, it has the UK’s largest elephant facility and is the only successful breeder of Asiatic elephants in this country – to date four youngsters have been born here. The Zoo has more than a mile of overhead railway providing a splendid bird’s-eye view of the animals and the Roman Garden. Other attractions include the Rare Penguin Breeding Centre with windows enabling visitors to see the birds “flying” underwater; a Forest Zone with spacious homes for Buffy Headed Capuchin monkeys; and special enclosures for the black rhinos, red pandas and in the Realm of the Red Ape, orang-utans. Offering more than enough interest for a full day out, the Zoo is open every day of the year except Christmas Day.