The Black & White Picture Place

Details from John McGahey's View of Chester from a Balloon 1855:

2. The Kaleyards & Canal

This detail from John McGahey's splendid aerial view of Chester in 1855 shows, at the top, the Deanery Field and the PhoenixTower on the north east corner of the city walls, round which flows the Shropshire Union Canal. Local author and guide Thomas Hughs, writing in 1876, twenty years after this view was made, said of the Deanery Field, "a sight pleasant to the eye is that verdant mead, in olden time known as the Green of the Walls". The same area can be seen in an aerial photograph of around a hundred years later, in 1969, here. Cow Lane Bridge crosses the canal in the centre of the picture, linking Frodsham Street (formerly Cow Lane) with Brook Street and the Roman road to the Mersey crossing at Wilderspool, near modern Warrington. This bridge, a fine painting of which may be seen here, was rebuilt at the end of the 1960s as part of the construction of the Inner Ring Road. Behind this, a large area of the Kaleyards at this time was utilised as a timber yard, with a wharf on the canal where the Slow Boat Chinese restaurant and other modern commercial premises stand today. These Kaleyards were once the kitchen gardens of the monks of the Abbey. On the right may be seen part of the Cattle Market where, for centuries, livestock were driven in from the surrounding countryside to be sold. The area is today used as a car park. Other enlarged sections from John McGahey's wonderful illustration: The Old Port Grosvenor Bridge St. John's Church The Northgate The Cathedral

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