The
Black & White
Picture
Place
Details
from
John
McGahey's
View
of
Chester
from
a
Balloon
1855:
1.
The
Old
Port
Area
|
This
detail
from
John
McGahey's
highly
detailed
chromolithographic
print
of
Chester
as
she
appeared
in
the
year
1855
shows
numerous
sailing
ships
negotiating
the
River
Dee.
Due
to
centuries
of
silting,
the
formerly-considerable
river
trade
had
been
largely
destroyed
until
this
section
was
canalised
around
the
middle
of
the
previous
century.
New
wharves
and
warehouses
were
constructed
on
the
banks
of
the
river
and
these
may
be
seen
in
the
centre
of
the
picture. Below the port buildings, a train, having passed through a tunnel in the city walls, is about to pass over a long viaduct on its way through North Wales to Holyhead in Anglesey, to meet the boats for Ireland. This line was constructed in 1846, only nine years before this view was made, and continues in service to this day. The ancient line of the city wall cuts up the centre of the picture, at the corner of which you can see the Watertower, built in 1322 to defend the medieval port. To its left, the large piece of open land was anciently known as Lady Barrow's Hey, hey being a Saxon name for a field enclosed with hedges. Earlier still, this area had been used by the Romans as a cemetery and many graves were uncovered when the Chester Royal Infirmary- seen to the left of the field- was being built in 1761. All traces of the open land disappeared as the hospital expanded over the next 200 years. It finally closed in 1993 after 230 years of medical care on the site, all services were transferred to the Countess of Chester Hospital on Liverpool Road and the site was sold for new housing. Between the Watertower and the wharves, the large triangular area of agricultural land was formerly known as the Tower Field and in 1836 Hemingway wrote that it had "recently been rented by the guardians of the poor by the cultivation of which, by spade husbandry, able-bodied paupers were very properly and advantagiously employed". Today, the attractive Water Tower Gardens, a pleasant little park, complete with tennis courts and a popular bowling green, occupies the site. To the right of the Watertower, the complex system of basins around Tower Wharf mark the junction of the Shropshire Union Canal with the River Dee and the fine 18th century building known today as Telford's Warehouse, Chester's finest live music venue, can clearly be seen.
Other enlarged sections from John McGahey's wonderful illustration:
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