|
 Watertower |
A Virtual Stroll Around the Walls of Chester 17. St. Martin's Gate |
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ntil recently, as
we
walked
east
along
the
North
Wall,
we
came
once
again
to
the
chaotic
scenes
of
a townscape
in
transition.
All
trace
the
unattractive
modern
additions
to
the
Chester
Royal
Infirmary
had
vanished,
medical
services
had
moved
to
the
newer
Countess
of
Chester
Hospital
on
Liverpool
Road
and
work
upon
the
new
houses
was underway. By the Autumn of 2002, the radical redevelopment of this large and historic site was largely complete.
(Here, by the way, is a fascinating and extensive illustrated history of hospitals in and around Chester).
The
Infirmary
had
been
enlarged
in
1914-
the
Albert
Wood
Wing
being
opened
in
March
of
that
year
by
King
George
V and
Queen
Mary,
the
hospital
being
permitted
to
assume
the
title
of
Royal
Infirmary
as
a result
of
their
visit. Albert
Wood himself was
a citizen
of
Conwy in
North
Wales-
and
a grateful
ex-patient,
who
funded
the
work
with
a gift
of £12,500.
The hospital was extended once again to house new out-patient and accident departments,
this new section being opened on 11th June 1963 by Princess Marina, the Duchess
of Kent.
Both of
these
extensions
have
now
vanished
as
if
they
had
never
been.
During
the
preparatory
work
for
the
construction
of
the
earliest
of
them, the eminent archaeologist,
Professor
Robert
Newstead
undertook
an
investigation
of
the
site,
when
evidence
of
Roman
burials
came
to
light.
It is exceedingly difficult to imagine this place as recently as the middle
of the last century when Thomas Hughes wrote of it, "We see on our left hand, through the refreshing grove of trees, a large and
verdant mead, still retaining its ancient name of the Barrow Field or
Lady Barrow's Hey. This is the place where the soldiers of old Rome went
through their daily military exercises, and where, 1500 years later, great numbers
of the citzens who died of the plague were hurredly interred".
This
Barrow
Field
was
the
last
survivor
of
the
extensive
open
lands
lying
within
the
city
walls
that
once
lay
between
here
and
the
present
site
of
the
Police
HQ,
and
collectively
known
as
the
Crofts. You can see the large area it once occupied on this detail of the 1898 Chester OS map.
In
March
1997,
it
was
announced
that
planning
permission
had
been
granted
to
Bryant
Homes
for
a development
of
100
homes
ranging
from
one
bedroom
flats
to
three-storey,
four
bedroom
town
houses
to
be
built
on
the
site,
and
that
three
of
the
roads
within
the
new
development
were
to
be
given
names
connected
with
Chester's
twin
town,
Sens
in
northern
Burgundy:
The
Yonne,
Brennus
Place
and
Sens
Close.
(Yonne
is
the
name
of
the
Department
in
which
Sens
is
situated
and
also
the
river
on
which
it
stands,
whereas
Brennus
was
an
ancient
Gallic
warrior
and
hero
who
led
the
struggle
against
the
Romans
in
the
Sens
area).
Before building work started, a team of archaeologists undertook a 16-week
investigation of the site. Amidst the noise and clouds of dust from nearby demolition
work, they and their discoveries could be seen through observation ports in
the surrounding fencing, which had been decorated with a series of fine murals
by six local primary schools on the theme of 'Routeways to Chester through Time'.
Much
Roman
and
Saxon
pottery
was
found,
as
well
as
the
foundations
of
some
prevously-unknown
agricultural
buildings
and
features
connected
with
a Roman
cemetery.
A large
amount
of
green
and
yellow-glazed
medieval
roof
tiles
were
also
discovered,
as
well
as
later
material
dating
from
the
17th
-19th
centuries.
Our
photograph
below
shows
a wonderful,
previously
unrecorded,
cobbled
roadway
complete
with
central
drain,
appearing
out
of
the
mud
for
the
first
time
in
many
centuries,
which
has
been
dated
to
around
the
middle
of
the
14th
century.
Notice
how
the
section
furthest
from
the
camera
has
been
resurfaced
to
a higher
quality,
using
smaller
stones.
A great tithe barn belonging to St. Werburgh's Abbey
once stood somewhere in this vicinity- King Street opposite used to be
known as Barn Lane- and it was hoped traces of it may be discovered.
Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case and the barn's site is now surmised
to lie somewhere under the modern ring road.
When a former nurse's home next to this road was demolished towards the end
of the dig, a 16th century pipe kiln was discovered, one of the first
to be found in the city, and now established as the oldest known in the UK-
complete with large quantities of broken pottery and clay pipes.
Tentative evidence of prehistoric occupation of the site was also found- in
an ancient place like Chester, where almost every square inch has been repeatedly
built and rebuilt upon, century after century, evidence of pre-Roman occupation
is extremely rare and finds of such ancient remains are almost unknown.
The
developers
gained
a lot
of
positive
publicity
when
they
declared
they
were
altering
their
plans
to
allow
the
road
and
other
remains
to
be
reburied
and
built
on
top
of,
thus
preserving
them
for
future
generations. But,
soon
afterwards,
they
instead
destroyed
much
of
it
by
the
laying
of
concrete
foundations.
This
writer
witnessed
the
excavator
at
its
destructive
work
while
conducting
a party
of
Australian
visitors
round
the
walls-
who
were
astonished
that
such
needless
vandalism
should
have
occured.
But
at
least
the
original
1761
Infirmary itself-
a grade
II
listed
building-
has
been
fully
restored
to
form
an
integral
part
of
the
new
housing
development,
and
its
interior
sub-divided
into
18
'executive
apartments'.
We
saw
the
building
floodlit
at
night
in
October
2001,
just
after
the
scaffolding
had
come
down,
and
must
say
it
looked
magnificent.
Planning permission had been granted to this large housing development partly upon the condition that a children's play area was constructed for the benefit of the younger new residents. As it has turned out, the sort of community this has become may be ascertained by the number of complaints which soon began to be received by the developers, to the effect that said playground "was not required or wanted". Residents also complained about paying ground rent for the planned play area and expressed the fear that it would "attract youths" (God forbid) to the area. They didn't even agree with a plan to install benches within the grounds!
As a result of all the moaning, developers Bryant Homes notified the
city council that they had been persuaded not to proceed with the playground- only to be informed that they would then be in breach of their planning permission and a limited extension of the time allowed for the completion of the work was granted. Bryant then offered to pay £15,000 towards the restoration of the nearby Water Tower Gardens if they could be released from their obligation to construct the playground and this was duly agreed by the city council planning board in October 2001.
In December 1998, during (archaeologically unsupervised) excavations to lay pipes along the course of City Walls Road, workers discovered a pila- a stone pillar which once formed part of a Roman hypocaust, or central heating system. It does not form part of an in situ building so was presumably transported here for re-use from the ruins of a bath house or substantial private dwelling. One such existed until the 18th century in nearby Watergate Street and- even closer to the Infirmary site- evidence was discovered for the possible existence of a Centurion's residence just across the present Inner Ring Road under the currently-derelict bowling green in Hunter Street. As we have learned elsewhere, this entire area is currently awaiting some form of redevelopment- details of which finally emerged in July 2001- which hopefully will include a thorough archaeological investigation to confirm this.
We
presently
come
to
a
curious
semi-circular
structure
on
our
left.
This
is
the much-altered
medieval
Dille's
Tower
or
Goblin
Tower-
but
more
commonly
known
today
as
Pemberton's
Parlour
after
one
John
Pemberton,
an
18th
century
ropemaker
and
Mayor
of
Chester,
who
owned
a
ropewalk
inside
the
wall
at
this
point
and
who
was
accustomed
to
supervising
his
employees
from
the
sheltered
vantage
point
of
this
tower.
IN
THE
7th
YEAR
OF
THE
GLORIOUS
REIGN
OF
QUEEN
ANNE,
DIVERS
LARGE
BREACHES
IN
THESE
WALLS
WERE
REBUILT
AND
OTHER
DECAYS
THEREIN
REPAIRED.
TWO
THOUSAND
YARDS
OF
THE
PACE
WERE
NEW
FLAGGED
OR
PAVED
AND
THE
WHOLE
IMPROVED,
REGULATED
AND
ADORNED
AT
THE
EXPENSE
OF
ONE
THOUSAND
POUNDS
AND
UPWARDS
Passing
on,
the
increasing
noise
and
smell
of
traffic
warns
us
that
we
are
once
again
approaching
the
inner
ring
road
and
here
we
see
before
us
the
most
recent
breach
in
Chester's
ancient
circuit
of
walls-
St. Martin's
Gate-
so
called
because
of
an
association
of
the
area
with
the
ancient
parish
of
that
name.
In
the
middle
distance,
past
the
aforementioned
vacant
office
block,
is
seen
the International
(formerly Moat
House)
Hotel built
above
a
multi-storey
car
park,
behind
which
is
located
the Gateway
Theatre amidst
an
unattractive
jumble
of
1960s
and
70's
brutalist
architecture-
and
this
writer's very
least favourite
part
of
the
city. 
Just
beyond,
behind
King's
Buildings
is King's
Court,
a
pleasant
and
secluded
development
of
small
modern
houses
which
provide
an
interesting
contrast
with
the
fine
17th
and
18th
century
buildings
in
King
Street.
