The Watergate, Chester

pproaching the end of Nun's Road on the western section of Chester's city walls, we see below us the numerous and complex rooftops of the various buildings connected with the Racecourse on the Roodee.

The road before us dips down sharply to the traffic lights and busy junction with Watergate Street (take care here)- but the wall rises slightly to lead us on to the Watergate.

On the right we see the gate as it appeared in 1888 in one Francis Frith's fine views. Except that the fancy gas lamp atop the gate has been removed- and an inevitable huge increase in traffic- this scene is little changed today.

As with the city gates previously visited on our walk, this is another example of an 18th century arch built to replace a fortified medieval gateway. At the time of its purchase by the corporation from the Earl of Derby in 1788, it was considered so "dangerously ruinous" that it had to be immediately demolished and the present arch, designed by Joseph Turner, was erected the following year.

Turner also designed the Bridgegate and the elegant row of houses in Nicolas Street, known as Pill-Box Terrace- which we will visit shortly.

On the western front of the Watergate is this inscription:

IN THE XXIX. YEAR OF THE REIGN OF GEO. III IN THE MAYORALITY OF JOHN HALLWOOD AND JOHN LEIGH, ESQUIRES, THIS GATE WAS ERECTED- THOMAS COTGREAVE, EDWARD BURROWS, ESQUIRES, MURENGERS.

Looking out here from the walls, beyond the nearby Watergate Inn and main entrance to Chester Racecourse, the view is fairly uninspiring- busy New Crane Street, with a large car park to its right. it is difficult to imagine that this was once the main gateway to the wharves and quays of Chester's port and ancient Watergate Street once its 'dock road'.

Left: The view from the Watergate along Nun's Road with the Roodee and buildings of Chester Racecourse on the right.

16th and 17th century maps show the River Dee approaching close to the Watergate, allowing just enough room for a quay for goods to be loaded and unloaded into waiting vessels or carts. Later, as the river silted and receded, quays and shipyards were established along Crane Street- the road leading out of the Watergate and curving round to the right- and the now-vanished Paradise Row- "A street of genteel houses" according to the 1792 directory.

Chester author and guide Joseph Hemingway, writing in 1836, stated that the river here "is navigable for ships of 350 tons burthen. From the quays are exported some of the richest cargoes of that excellent commodity which affords to the taste of the Londoners the most grateful flavour, and presents the Cockney with what he calls "The fattest Velsh rabbits in the Vorld"- good old Cheshire Cheese"

To the left, between here and the Roodee, stood 150 years ago the House of Industry. Hemingway again: "That asylum for age and indigence, whose inmates are provided with all necessities of food and clothing; it is regularly visited by a clergyman and a medical man, and contains a school and an establishment for insane paupers".

The area today known as the Old Port is currently undergoing a major redevelopment. New houses and young people's accomodation are being built, but a plan to demolish the splendid Victorian Electric Light Building led to a two-year campaign of opposition from local people- which at the time of writing seems to have resulted in at least the facade of this locally-important building being saved and incorporated within the new buildings.

During the middle ages, the sergeancy of the Watergate had always been regarded as a coveted and lucrative position and was held by the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, whose fine town house, Stanley Palace- built in 1591- still stands, a little way up on the right hand side of Watergate Street.
old Watergate

The gate was guarded until well into the 18th century, and had been ably protected by a heavy double door, portcullis and drawbridge. Tolls were levied on all goods entering the town and the keeper of the gate, to quote the ancient records, "takes of every cart entering with firewood: one branch; of every horseload of fish: five fishes; of every boat coming to the aforesaid gate with large fish or salt salmon: one fish; with herring, fifty".

In 1615, referring to the status of the Watergate and its neighbourhood, it was said "which gate is less than any of the other three, serving only for the passage to the rood-eye and to the banks of the river, where are brought into the city all such commodities of coal, fish, corn and other things; which barks and other small vessels bring up so far upon the waters of Dee".

Within the city wall, Watergate Street rises steeply to where the spire of Holy Trinity Church- also known as the Guild Hall- stands, near to which was the West Gate of the Roman Fortress- the Porta Principalis Dextra- and from that point lies the line of the Via Principalis, the present-day Watergate and Eastgate Streets. Could the Saxon founders of Holy Trinity have ulitised a ruined gatehouse connected with the West Gate for their first church? A very similar situation existed in what is now the middle of the busy junction of Bridge Street and Grosvenor Street, where for centuries there stood a church dedicated to St. Bridget, which was founded around the year 797 by King Offa on the site of the vanished Roman Southgate, or Porta Praetoria.

Another ancient church once existed in this part of Chester, one dedicated to St. Chad. One source stated that the church, "stood in the croft over against the Black Friars on the north side of Watergate Street near to the Watergate". A document of 1388 makes mention of a garden situated close to it, but other than that, we have virtually no further information about the church, or of when and why it disappeared.

The Grey Friars
All of the land bounded by today's Watergate Street, Bedward Row (which we will pass just before we reach the Infirmary), St. Martin's Way (the Inner Ring Road) and the City Walls once formed the precinct of the Franciscan Friars- the Grey Friars. We learned a little of their neighbours, the Dominicans or Black Friars and the nuns of St. Mary's in our previous chapter.

The friary was founded in 1237-8, only a year or so after the Dominicans- who actually opposed their foundation on the grounds that they feared there would not be enough alms forthcoming in the small town to support both institutions.

Having overcome these early difficulties, for the three centuries of their existence the friars seem to have gone about their business uneventfully and history tells us little of them. The Franciscans were always the smallest and poorest of the religious foundations in Chester and indeed, by 1529, they had become so impoverished that they were compelled to let out the nave and three aisles of their church to the merchants and sailors of Chester, as a place for storing and repairing sails and other things requisite for their ships, on the understanding that the merchants undertook all necessary repairs to the church.

Together with the other two Chester religious houses on this side of the city, the unfortunate Franciscans finally surrendered their house to Henry VIII's commissioners on 15th August 1538 after which time the estate passed through the hands of several owners including, in 1588, the Warburtons. They sold it to the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, in 1622 who retained the lands until 1775 when they were purchased by the Linen Merchants, who erected their new Linen Hall on part of the site and sold the rest for residential development. On this western half of the site arose during the 1770s Watergate Flags (the area immediately outside the Watergate), Stanley Place and Stanley Street. At the time of the sale the entire area was known as the Grey Friar's Close or, alternatively, as the Yacht Field. We will discuss this area further in our next chapter...

The friary buildings, remarkably, survived right through from the Dissolution until this final splitting up of the lands for development and the tall steeple of their church long served as a guide to mariners entering the Port of Chester, and is marked on contemporary charts as such, before falling into private hands and finally being demolished. The antiquarian William Webb wrote of its removal, "It was a great pitie that the steeple was put away, being a great ornament to the citie. This curious spire steeple might still have stood for grace to the citie had not private benefit, the devourer of antiquitie, pulled it down with the church, and erected a house which since hath been of little use, so that the citie lost so good an ornament, that tymes hereafter may talk of it, being the only seamark for direction over the bar of Chester".

Our city, it seems, has suffered from the destructive ways of the property developer for longer than we realised.

Aside from the nuns of St. Mary's, the Blackfriars and Greyfriars, whose houses all were situated on this side of the city, and the Benedictine monks of the great Abbey of St. Werburgh (now the Cathedral), there was yet another religious community in Chester- that of the Carmelite White Friars. Their monastery and lands were situated on the other side of Nicolas Street, the modern Inner Ring Road and the narrow street called White Friars (formerly White Friars Lane) perpetuates their name to this day. The monks acquired further parcels of land as time went by and their estate in its final form was bounded by Commonhall Street to the north, White Friars to the south, Bridge Street to the east and Weaver Street to the west.

Their community had existed in Chester since around 1277 but it was only in 1290 that one Hugh Payn granted them land "in a suburb of Chester" on which to build their house. That this area, now very much in the heart of the city, was referred to as a 'suburb' indicates how undeveloped great areas within the Walls long remained and, indeed, this area did not finally become fully built-up until the late 15th century.
As with the other religious houses, the Carmelite's church was rebuilt and enlarged several times over the two and a half centuries of occupation and in 1495 the tower was rebuilt and furnished with a tall and graceful steeple.

When the Dissolution came in 1538, as with the other religious houses (except, of course, for the Abbey), the monks were dispossessed and the buildings and land passed through the hands of several owners, including the Duttons and Gamuls, who probably made their substantial mansion from the monk's former domestic quarters and buildings of the outer court. The large and impressive church, however, long remained in use- it may be seen on Braun's 1571 map of Chester- and became the burial place of several prominent local families. But, in 1592, it was sold to Thomas Egerton, the Attorney-General, who proceeded to tear down the church and spire, and possibly the other buildings as well, and built his mansion on the site. This in turn disappeared and was replaced by the large private house, 'The Friars', which remains, standing in its extensive grounds, with us today.

Back in Watergate Street, this 19th century engraving shows the ancient Yacht Inn (named after the Yacht Field upon which it was built) and the view up Watergate Street towards the centre of the city and the Cross. On the left, Holy Trinity Church is yet to be rebuilt and acquire the tall spire we see today- which work was carried out in 1865-9 by James Harrison.
Sadly, the interior of his fine building has since been thoroughly spoiled by modern 'improvements' including shabby wood panelling, a clumsy bar structure and some truly horrible wallpaper.

As we stand atop the Watergate, the late 18th century houses nearest to us on the north side of the street occupy the site of the legionary bath houses which were situated here outside the fortress to minimise fire risk and be nearer to the water source.

That side of the nearby corner house which runs parallel with the wall still has as its foundation part of the west wall of the ancient bath house, which is pierced by the furnace arch of a hypocaust. Also found on the site were the remains of a sudatory (sweating bath) and many tiles stamped with the wild boar motif of the XXth Legion, considerable amounts of coins of the reigns of Hadrian and Trajan and- most importantly- an altar dedicated to Aesulapius: 'Fortune the Restorer'- the Roman Goddess of healing who was always honoured at legionary bath houses. Due to the lack of a suitable local exhibition place, the altar ended up 200 miles away in the British Museum in London, where it remains on show today. One Philip Egerton had a large number of hypocaust pillars and Roman tiles from the site taken to his country mansion at Oulton Park (now a famous motor racing venue) near the Cheshire village of Little Budworth, where they were formed into the floor of a mock 'Druid's Temple' he was having built on the estate. Some of the pilae didn't make it as far as Egerton's home and ended up instead in the surrounds of Oakmere Lake. Tragically, all other traces of the extensive remains found on the site were swept away- "destroyed by the rude hand of ignorance"- when the houses were built in 1799. The corner one, as we shall learn later, in 1878 became the original home of the Queen's School for Girls.

That 'rude hand of ignorance' is a phenomenon by no means restricted to times long gone. An even larger, and far better preserved, Legionary bath house- "Extending for almost 200 feet with walls standing up to 12 feet or more in height"- found during the construction of the Grosvenor Precinct was stupidly swept away for the construction of underground delivery bays a mere thirty years ago.

The author recently photographed the well-preserved remains of a small Roman civil bath house in Prestatyn - a small seaside resort a few miles along the North Wales coast, and not otherwise noted for its antiquities. Still clearly visible in situ are tiles stamped 'Leg XX VV' and bearing the wild boar motif, probably made at the Legionary works depot at Holt on the River Dee. Shamefully, Chester, the great fortress of Deva, can boast of nothing like this outside of sorry remnants in the glass cases of the Grosvenor Museum.

There was a time when destruction came to Watergate Street in more violent ways. Randle Holme III wrote of the bursting of some grenados (mortars) here on December 10th 1645, during the Civil War Siege of Chester, "Two houses in the Watergate Street skip joint from joint, and create an earthquake; the main posts jostle each other, while the frightened casements fly for fear, in a word, the whole fabric is a perfect chaos, lively set forth in the metamorphosis: the grandmother, mother and three children are struck stocke dead and buried in the ruins of their humble edifice"...

Read more of Holmes' terse description of the great destruction caused to Chester during those troubled times here.

Now go on to part II of our exploration of the Watergate area of Chester...