Chester's walls: what is Roman and what is not

Where to see Roman stonework

The north wall, Northgate to King Charles’ Tower

This is the place. Between Northgate and King Charles’ Tower (also called the Phoenix Tower), two stretches of the Roman wall stand to almost their full height, up to 13 courses of large sandstone blocks in the western part and 11 in the eastern, topped in places by a moulded Roman cornice. West of Northgate, towards Morgan’s Mount, the lower five to eight courses are Roman too.

Walking along the top you are standing on later work. For the Roman face, go down to the Shropshire Union Canal towpath: the canal runs in a cutting below the wall, close to where the fortress ditch once lay, and from there you can see the Roman blocks rising above the rock.

The south-east angle tower, by Newgate

Beside the walls at Newgate, a few steps from the amphitheatre, are the footings of the tower that stood at the fortress’s south-east corner, where its east and south walls met.

The east wall and the gates

The east wall from King Charles’ Tower to Newgate follows the Roman line, though most of what you see is later. Two of today’s gates stand on the sites of Roman ones: Northgate, rebuilt by Thomas Harrison in 1808 to 1810, and Eastgate, rebuilt in 1768 and crowned in 1899 with the famous clock. The Roman fortress’s main street ran through the Eastgate, along today’s Eastgate Street.

How the Romans built them

The first defences, in the mid-70s AD, were an earth and turf rampart about six metres wide with a timber palisade, a ditch in front and timber towers. From around AD 100, after the Twentieth Legion took over, they were rebuilt in the local red sandstone, a long job that went on for generations.

According to the archaeologist David Mason, the stone wall was about 1.4 metres thick at its base, with 22 towers about 6.5 metres square set roughly 60 metres apart. He estimates the facing used more than 55,000 tonnes of stone, laid without mortar.

The tombstones in the wall

In 1883, when the north wall was repaired near Morgan’s Mount, workmen found Roman tombstones built into its lower courses. More came out in 1887 in the Deanery Field section and in excavations in 1890 to 1892. At some point the Romans had taken stones from their own cemetery to repair the defences. The tombstones, with their portraits of soldiers and their families, are now in the Grosvenor Museum.

Saxon, Norman and later walls

After the Romans left, the old defences went on protecting the town. In 907, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, refounded Chester as a fortified burh and repaired the walls. In the 10th century the Saxons extended them, and in the 12th century the Normans extended them again, west and south to the river, to make the first complete circuit since the Romans. That is the circuit you can walk today, the most complete in Britain.

King Charles’ Tower was used by the city’s guilds and was damaged in the siege of 1645 during the Civil War. The walls walk guide goes round the whole circuit, stretch by stretch.

Damage, repairs and closures

The walls are a scheduled monument, looked after by Cheshire West and Chester Council. Sections close from time to time for repairs, and graffiti on the walls has made the local news more than once. Damaging a scheduled monument is a criminal offence. Before a visit, check the council’s walls page for diversions.