Chester: Cathedral and City [antikvár]

UMi Chester: Cathedral and City Described by C. E. J arman Canon Emeritus of Chester and photographed by R.H. Tilbrook A JARROLO COLOUR PUBLICATION The pictures on the cover will have interested you and aroused curiosity; they illustrate Chester. We enjoy seeing historic places on the spot or on television, but there is a place for pictorial reproduction in book form. Chester is renowned and visitors can see in walking round the survival of much that is ancient, whilst redevelopment adds the competence of our time without destroying the qualities of the past. There is continuity. The Britons named this place Caerlyon for as Higden the medieval chronicler - of whom more later -wrote, This cyte in tyme of Britons was hede and chyefe cyte of all Venedocia (North Wales). Thys cyte in Brytyshe spech bete Carthleon. Chestre in Englyshe and Cyte of Legyons also. For there laye a wynter of legyons . . . sent for to wyne Irlonde.' Nearly 2000 years have passed since the Roman legion made a fortress on 'a low sandstone hill at the head of the estuary of the Dee and called the station Deva'. Its key position to the Roman soldiers meant that it became a military and commercial centre, the headquarters of the XX Roman Legion in Britain. The legion was withdrawn about a.d. 400 and the protection it had given to these parts ceased, the fortress deserted and the Britons exposed to the incursions of Saxons and Scots. We have Roman remains in several places. Ethelfrith, pagan King of Northumbria in a.d. 615, fought with the Welsh and the city was destroyed and lay in ruins. It was derelict when in 894 a Danish army wintered here, and this prompted Ethelred and Ethelfleda to rebuild the walls and found places of Christian worship. The years passed. In late Saxon times Chester gained in reputation, having its own mint and a sturdy independence was emerging. The Palatine Earldom was created after the Norman Conquest. At first the Conquest was resisted and then accepted. Cheshire became a county palatine and Chester the seat of government of the palatine earls. Prince Charles is Earl of Chester as well as Prince of Wales. It is an ancient title and he has a long line of predecessors. Chester had its great days of medieval prosperity in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; there was a flourishing port and trade was good. But its fortunes changed and it began 'to lose its standing as a port through the gradual silting up of the Dee estuary and the city was further impoverished by the inroads of the Welsh'. Many charters were granted by English monarchs to the citizens, and there were charters to the Benedictine Abbey of St Werburgh, now the Cathedral. In the thirteenth century it is said 'the religious life of Chester and indeed its economic life too ' was dominated by the richly endowed Benedictine monastery'. Chester has had its sheriffs since 1238 and by the Great Charter in the reign of Henry VII the city was constituted a county by itself and the governing body incorporated. It is now a county borough with its Mayor, Sheriff and City Council. The administrative affairs of Cheshire are in the hands of the County Council. There have been Bishops of Chester since 1541 and among them notable men and scholars of repute. Apart from the Church of England and its ancient parishes there is an influential Roman Catholic community while the Free Churches make a distinct contribution to the religious life. The city can offer educational advantages and there are excellent schools. The King's School was founded in 1541. Cultural interests are well catered for. A visit to the Grosvenor Museum can be amply rewarding; in the various rooms there are interesting exhibits, e.g. Roman stones and other relics; a place for an hour. As these pages are turned over, more will be described. On the soil of Chester 'a centre of civilisation was formed which has remained through prosperity and devastation for over seventeen hundred years; occupied by diff"erent races, dominated through the centuries by differing ideals each one of which has left its impression upon the formation and the traditions of the city'. So wrote the late F. H. Crossley in his book on Cheshire. But in our day the city is not living on the past - it is moving with the times. We proceed now to look around.