Cheshire 17 - Chester - the park and ride, thoughts of Foot and Mouth, white cheesecloth dresses , bells, colourful ribbons and mauve dyed melon seed necklaces

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There is something about a trip that sometimes brings back memories. Memories both good and bad. Memories that have been long forgotten. Perhaps it is a place. Or a smell. Something just brings those memories flooding back. Today was one of those days. We never went to Chester much when I was a child. It was one of those day out trips. Not far away but involved what must have felt like a long and expensive ride out on a bus. A trip to a city. Much bigger than Wrexham. With much more history and infrastructure. Interesting shops. A medieval heart that Wrexham lacked. A cathedral. We only had a large church. A Victorian Gothic Town Hall, markets and the Walls.

We drove from home to the nearby Park and Ride which took us for the princely sum of £2 each to the middle of the city. A bargain price compared to the normal bus fare. An easier drive than facing the Chester traffic and having to find expensive multistory car parking. As the bus trundled its way into the city, I found myself thinking about Foot and Mouth. The fields which are now housing estates were full of cattle at one point before the 1966 epidemic Foot and Mouth which decimated the cattle population in the UK. I remember the air full of acrid smoke as the dead cows were being burnt on massive pyres. Or the stench of lime which filled the pits that were full of dead animals. I wondered how many of the houseowners had any idea they were on a pit of dead animals. I remembered travelling with schoolfriends for a day in Chester. Visits to the Wimpey Bar for a coca cola and a burger. All of us wearing some kind of white cheesecloth dress or top. Popular at the time. We resisted the flowers in our hair but covered ourselves with bells on bright coloured ribbons and mauve dyed melon seed necklaces. My mind was swinging wildly from life in the 60's to how many people were using the bus. From the ease of travel to the hotel we had booked in Strasbourg.

Arriving in Chester bus station it was a short walk up to the Northgate Street with its roman arch much redesigned by George II. Past the Bluecoat School. Was it still a school? I doubted it . The Northgate was the area the Romans of Chester buried their dead. Must outside the city walls which rose up from the canal below. We climbed onto the walls as these are the quickest ways to get across the city. Below us the water of the canal. I could spend days here walking the canal banks in all different directions or walking the streets and down the small medieval alleyways.

Northgate Street was busy. Mainly because the Christmas market was in town. Stall after stall were set up and the smell of cinnamon doughnuts permeated the air. We could buy hot mulled wine or christmas gifts. The Town Hall looked as always a stunning bit of architecture. I found myself wondering - Chester is a city - why a Town Hall? Surely it ought to have been a city hall. Then Wrexham a town with a modern Guildhall. A topsy turvy language is English.

It was around 74 or 75 AD that the fortress that became Chester was established. Originally surmounted by earth ramparts and wooden palisades the new sandstone walls were constructed by 90AD - 100AD. Sadly our town did not have a roman presence to the same degree. Hence no ramparts nor any sandstone walls. It was a little cold on the walkway with the wind being a touch keen. We headed along the most complete and oldest walls in the United Kingdom. We passed the Cathedral where we were intending to visit later and saw the Addleshaw Belltower. This was built as a separate belltower some years ago when the bells were found to be too heavy for the old tower of the cathedral. Rather than not ring the bells or let them damage the fabric of the cathedral a modern stand-alone belltower was built. It looks odd compared to the rich red sandstone of the cathedral. The 11th century cathedral was to be our stop later in the day. The King Charles Tower caught our attention. It was closed so no visiting today. It was said that King Charles watched his armies fighting the Battle of Rowton Moor during the English Civil War. I did wonder how you could see Rowton from the walls as they are miles away.

We needed to head past the Kaleyards and down Eastgate Street and Bridge Street before arriving at the Museum. I had a plan. To visit the roman section with its excellent collection of roman tombstones. I had seen them many years ago, but you cannot get enough of Roman. The museum housed in the wonderful building endowed by the Grosvenor family as free and as such was busy. Kids everywhere. They sat in the rooms full of the roman tombstones. They stood in front of the display cases. They shouted and screamed. The filled the rooms set aside for lunches. A reconstruction of the Mayors Parlour. We went in the opposite direction to see a display of Raynor watercolours of the city, a display of Chester silver, a very small collection of natural history and finally clothing retrieved from the local Browns store.

I was disappointed with the museum. Nothing like as good as the Shrewsbury Museum I saw a few weeks ago. Somehow, I had expected something better from Chester and it just did not deliver this time. Time to walk back to the cathedral for a welcome warm up and coffee in the abbot's refectory.

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