6 October 2021

With the plan of getting back into my creative arts, I wanted to go to a fabric and craft supply shop called Abakhan Fabrics, Hobby & Home.

Previously, Nat and I had gone to the one in Manchester City. Today, we chose their store in Chester.

Chester is about an hour’s drive from home and a place that John and I briefly visited in 2008 when we went on our whirlwind bus tour of the UK. We only got to walk down one of the roads, walk past the cathedral and then get back on the bus. It was a brief stop before we headed into Wales for the afternoon. So I was keen to visit Chester, spending time with Nat, see a bit more of the city, as well as picking up the things I wanted from Abakhan.

We set off from home and arrived at lunch time. We parked outside of the city walls and then walked through to the main streets, making a stop for lunch first.

These are some of the sights on our way to our lunch stop. It is quite hard to tell which of the black and white buildings are genuinely very old, from the 13th century (1200s AD) and which are replicas built in the Victorian (1800s) era. It is a uniquely beautiful place with such a range of architecture.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Walking through the Roman built gate within the walls of the city, we walked down Northgate Street, which is right through the middle of Chester, where we encountered The Blue Bell, now a Tapas restaurant. Their archway to walk along the front of the restaurant was very low. Luckily Nat and I aren’t too tall, but we still felt the need to duck as we went through.

• 

• 

• 

Continuing along we reached The Pied Bull Brewery Pub and decided that it was worth calling in for lunch. We weren’t disappointed by what we found through the door. I love how they had kept so much of the original timber considering it was built in 1473 which is 548 years ago and it is still trading.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The pub is still producing their own beer, being the only micro brewery within the city walls. Their beer is available on tap, but we didn’t try it However, we did have their steak and ale pie and it was very, very nice. Though, I must say, I could pass on the kale. that accompanied it.

• 

• 

The Pied Bull is also a hotel and it was interesting to see the history sign that said there are two resident ghosts. Nat was not sure she would be keen to stay in a hotel where she might wake up to see a ghost standing at the bottom of her bed.

After the lovely meal, it was time to go exploring. We called into the information centre where we picked up a map of the city which included the self paced walk. Because we were on a whirl wind visit, we wouldn’t have time to take the walk, but we picked a couple of things that we did want to see, such as the walls, The Rows and the Chester Cathedral (separate blog).

The streets where a combination of modern everyday retail outlets nestled under the amazing black and white of the Tudor styled architecture.

The Rows are a so different to see too. These buildings have a walkway that links the neighboring shops together, up above the ground level of shops.

In this section of the rows, you can see above the Ernest Jones store that there is a Lakeland Store. Some of them have restaurants on the upper level too.

There is very little noise from traffic as many of the streets were for pedestrian traffic only. It made for a lovely atmosphere, especially as there were several buskers playing beautiful guitar music. We wandered the streets, some of which were still cobblestones, allowing me to take plenty of happy snaps.

One of the shops I had been told about is the York Roast Company, where they wrap roast meat into a Yorkshire pudding wrap – The Yorky Pud Wrap. We were very tempted to pick up take away for dinner as the roast pork crackling looked amazing. But we thought that the pudding would probably be very soggy from the gravy if we made it travel from Chester back to Manchester in the car. So, we only got to drool at the window.

• 

• 

To reach the Abakhan fabric store, we had to exit the city walls and that took us through another gate, The East Gate with the clock on top. Along the top of the gate was the information about when the gate was built. The information was in Roman numerals, which neither Nat or I could read and mentally convert into a year. Thankfully, Google can help with that. AD MDCCLXVIII is 1768 and AD MDCCLXIX is 1769. Not a Roman era, we were a little disappointed. Then we saw the blue badge that explained things, including that the clock on the top wasn’t ancient, being from the 1890s. We also crossed over the canal again. Our destination shop was beside the canal.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once we had completed our shopping at the Abakhan fabric store, buying beautiful material for me to create with, we returned to my car to off-load the shopping. Then, as it was still quite early in the afternoon, we decided to go up onto the city wall for a walk.

Parts of the wall are 2000 years old and Chester is the only place in Britain that has a completely encircling wall. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy as is quite narrow and the paving stones slope towards the inside of the wall.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Looking down on the park within the wall, we spotted several squirrels, including this one who we watched dig a hole and bury the nut it was carrying. For an Aussie, it is so cute to see these little pests scampering around. They are very cute.

Once we reached the sign indicating that we were close to the entrance to the Chester Cathedral, we came down from the wall to visit. We had a feeling that it was going to be beautiful inside. We weren’t disappointed. If you would like to see the highlights of the Chester Cathedral, please visit the Blog Post about this magnificent building.

After our visit to the Cathedral, we went in search of the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre. It is possible to see the brick work that would have been under the raised seating. I expect that they used to be higher, but the stones were removed for other buildings, so not much was left. It is the biggest Roman Amphitheatre in Britain and could seat 7000 spectators.

• 

• 

• 

• 

After all the walking we had done, both of us had tired legs. So, as the afternoon had slipped away, it was time to make our way back to the car park. This had been a fantastic visit to Chester.

There is a lot more to explore in Chester, but it was time to now drive back to Manchester before the peak afternoon traffic started to build. Next time, an overnight stay would allow more time to take the guided walking tour and other sights. Maybe a stay with the ghosts? And next time we are there, I will definitely have to have a Yorky Wrap.