England on the Sharp's narrow boat Hawkeye, Day 6, May 20
Goto Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17-19
Up early, 7:00 AM, had a breakfast of more of Frank's yummy "French Crumpets". Frank and I spent a some time planting squash on some planters atop Hawkeye while Dot and Chris cleaned up from breakfast. After this was all done and we were ready for the day, we headed out to see Chester. We retraced our route of yesterday but this time, we decided to walk all the way around the wall.
On the way to the wall, this plant was growing out of one of the stone buttresses at the railroad overpass. One of the neat things about walking around on the wall is that it puts you at a level with the tree canopy. There were a number of flowering trees and shrubs around the wall, this one was just east of the North Gate.
Dot and Frank (Christy in the distance) on the wall approaching the Phoenix or King Charles Tower on the north east corner of the Roman Wall. The Tower (the front side) is shown on the right and the plaque commemorating the King's visit in the center.
More Flowers. I think the ones on the left are hawthorne and the ones on the right look like some form of hydrangea.
Here, we approach the Eastgate Clock - which stands, interestingly, atop the East Gate. It carries an imprint that indicated that it dates from 1897. The photo on the right is a view from the clock looking down Eastgate St. which becomes Watergate where it intersects Northgate and Bridge St. at "The Cross". "The Cross" is visible way down at the end of the street. It is just barely possible to discern Watergate St. as the partial gap right of the brick building at the far side of The Cross.
In this Google Earth image, the layout of the center of Old Chester is illustrated. Just south of the East Gate, the wall was blocked off while repairs were being effected. We left the wall and wandered around the old town, stopped for lunch at a restaurant named Katy's then wandered some more.
During our wandering, we noticed this building and on investigating, found that it is one of the few really early structures remaining in Old Chester. The date on the front reads 1274 AD if you can't read it here. There is a walkway behind the three arches on the second story. There would have been shops on the second floor and people would stroll along the walkway shopping.
Eventually, we made our way to The Cross. Here are three shots from three different perspectives. The first is from Bridge St. looking diagonally across The Cross to Northgate St. The center shot is from Watergate St. with Bridge St. to the right. The right hand shot is from Northgate St. The street that goes off to the left between the buildings is Bridge St. The "half timbered" building on the right in the first shot (carrying the sign Bridge St.) is the same as the one on the left in the other two shots. It sort of wraps around the corner.
As we walked around, I photographed buildings that looked like they may be among the older ones. I think they are probably not since the half timbered look is too square for really authentic half timbered structures. These have no straight lines nor conventional angles. They were framed from hand hewn, squared logs and filled with a mortar-like material so things weren't straight in the original or authentic half timbered buildings. The tall narrow building in the center does look quite old though.
Two more photogenic buildings seen on our wanderings. After seeing Old Town Chester, doing some shopping and having lunch, we wandered around until we got beyond the wall construction and resumed our stroll around Chester on the Old Roman City Wall.
This plaque was actually on the wall on the other side of Old Chester at the end of Watergate St. but I've placed it here to show the route we will follow as well as where we've already been. Also, it will, hopefully, be easier to refer back to it here rather than at the bottom of the page.
Near where we rejoined the wall, it met, and ran parallel to, the River Dee for a distance, generally in a south westerly direction. Seen here, first (left), the River Dee and Old Dee Bridge (built before 1280) with the weir (built around 1090 to provide water for the Earl of Chester's mills) in the foreground from the wall. In the center, a view across the bridge from the wall. Finally, the back side of the building on the right in the center image. I was intrigued by the arch emerging from the water. I wonder what it is and why it would have been placed below the water?
This church steeple was impressive rising out out of the trees across the River Dee so I burned a few electrons on it. I think it probably belongs to St. Mary's Church in Handbridge.
Just below the Old Dee Bridge, the wall turns almost 90º and runs north west, then turns due north. Chester Castle is located in this curve, within the wall, at the extreme southern tip of Old Chester. Above are three views of the castle as we progress along the wall around the structure. The original fort here was built after the 1066 Norman conquest of Chester. It was rebuilt by Henry II in 1245 as a stone fort/castle.
This is actually sod on the roof of this building near the wall. I don't know what the building is (possibly a bus stop or station) or why they decided to use sod on the roof.
This picture shows the remains original wall built in the 1st century AD with the Roman wall built several centuries later. The stones in the lower part of the image are the remains of the original wall while the Roman City Wall is obvious - as are Dot, Christy and Frank watching me maneuver around to try to get everything in the frame (grin).
The first of these images shows the walkway atop the wall and the tower at the north west corner. The second is of the water tower which is just off the north west corner left of the tower in the first shot.
Dot (left image) and Frank and Christy posing at the north east tower.
We exited the wall and headed back to Hawkeye but before we left, I got this shot of Hawkeye and Telford's Warehouse from the north east portion of the wall.
We were welcomed back to Hawkeye by this family of Swans. We rested for a while, then went back to Telford's Warehouse to check e-mail and justify the use of their wifi by having a few pints. We had dinner, watched TV for a while and turned in. Tomorrow we head for Ellesmere Port and the ship museum.
Goto Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17-19
England on the Sharp's narrow boat Hawkeye, Day 6, May 20