Chester is an old city dating back approximately 2000 years to Roman times (when parts of the City wall date from) when it was known as Deva or Castra Devana. They built it as a fortress for Legio XX Valeria Victrix, the 20th Legion, safe in the loop of the River Dee and used it as a port and defence from the Welsh Celts. It was then the principal town of England, with many relics remaining today, including the weir on the river to keep water levels high and stop ships going too far, the 'cross', where the four main streets intersect, as well as remains of a strong room and hypocaust system underneath shops and, controversially, half of its original amphitheatre, with the other half built over.

The Roman Empire fell three hundred years later. In AD 605 or AD 606 (ref. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) or AD 613 to AD 616 (ref. Bede), Æthelfrith king of Northumbria defeated a big Celtic army at Chester and established the Anglo-Saxon position in the area. The Saxons extended and strengthened the walls of Chester to protect the city against the Danes. The Anglo-Saxons called Chester Ceaster or Legeceaster.

Later in the Saxon period Saint Werburgh founded a religious institution on the present site of Chester Cathedral, and her name is still remembered in St Werburgh's Street which passes alongside the cathedral, and near to the city walls.

After the 1066 Norman Conquest, Chester Castle was built as another defence from the Celts. Along with this, the Normans built what is now Chester Cathedral which, before Henry VIII, was a great Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Werburgh, and still stands in the city centre today. Chester was at this time the largest port in North-west England, with the trade that this created bringing affluence to the city. It became a county corporate, essentially giving it administrative independence. It was once thought that Chester's maritime trade was brought to an end by the silting of the River Dee, although recent research has shown this is not the case. It was the use of larger ocean-going ships that led to the diversion of the trade to the relatively young town of Liverpool. Neither was it that the silting of the River Dee that created the land which is now Chester's racecourse (known as the Roodee), on which a stone cross, once used as a water level marker, still stands, since the Roodee was in existence as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Chester continued to deal with its loss of trade throughout the centuries, and in the 1640s English Civil War the Battle of Rowton Moor occurred in nearby meadows, where the Parliamentary Forces crushed the Royalist loyal Cavaliers. This battle was watched by King Charles I from Chester's Phoenix Tower (now also called King Charles' Tower) on the City Walls.

In the Georgian era, the city became again a centre of affluence, a town with elegant terraces where the landed aristocracy lived. This trend continued into the Industrial Revolution, when the city was populated with the upper classes in amongst the industrial sprawls of Manchester and Liverpool. The revolution brought the Chester Canal (now part of the Shropshire Union Canal) to the city (which was dubbed 'England's first unsuccessful canal', after its failure to bring heavy industry to Chester) as well as railways and two large central stations, only one of which remains. The Victorians progressed to build Chester's Gothic Town Hall, which, along with the Cathedral, dominates the city skyline. This was built after the original Guild Hall burnt down, and features a clock tower with only three faces, with the Welsh facing side remaining blank. The reason for this was declared by the architects to be simply because "Chester won't give the Welsh the time of day". However, this did not stop the town hosting Wales's National Eisteddfod in 1866.

The Eastgate clock was also built at this time, and is a central feature as it crosses Eastgate street, and is part of the city walls.The clock is very popular with tourists this is has given it the grand title of the second most photographed clock in the UK after Big Ben. 

This page was last updated: 24 August 2005

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL