Architecture – Life is a Journey

6th October 2021

While Nat and I were in Chester to purchase material from my new favourite store, Abakhan Fabric, Hobby and Home, we wandered the streets amazed at the black and white facades of the shops and the historic Roman built walls and amphitheatre, eating at an historic pub and enjoying each other’s company.

However, there is one building that stands back from the main thoroughfare street and it was definitely worth visiting, The Chester Cathedral.

View of the Cathedral from outside the visitor centre.

The Cathedral belongs to The Church of England and since 1541 the Bishop of Chester has been attached to this Cathedral. It was originally an abbey church for a Benedictine monastery. It was built over a very long period of time, starting somewhere around 1093 and most recently had a bell tower added in 1900s. Services are still held here, but it is open to anyone who wishes to go in and explore, which is exactly what we did.

We came down off the Roman city wall, which we had been walking along and walked around the the Cathedral entrance. It is a beautiful old building and luckily it has is listed as a Grade 1 building, meaning it is protected for the future.

There are a lot of different architectural styles incorporated into this magnificent building, I guess that would be because it has been updated so many times over its history.

The layout of the Cathedral with architectural styles

We entered via the South porch (8) and made our way into the middle of the Nave (4), looking towards the magnificent carved woodwork that separates where the congregation sit and the section for the choir (6) and the High Alter (k).. It is a towering space.

Behind us was the West Door(1) and above that, beautiful stained glass windows to catch the afternoon sunlight.

It is unfortunate that many of the windows were destroyed by civil unrest in the 1600s and replaced many times. These windows above the door date from the 1900s to replace what was damaged during WWII. They depict the Holy family.

Along the northern wall (13) of the Nave were scenes from Biblical stories, tiny mosaic stone work representing many hours of labour. Anyone who has made a mosaic table top will know just how long it takes to cover a small area with pattern. These are massive detailed pictures.

On the Southern side (9) of the Nave are more stain glass windows, these date from 1860. They are beautiful. I don’t think that I have ever seen abstract patterns in windows before, but these are striking.

We walked down the Northern wall and then took a closer look at beautiful carved wood (5)that separates the Choir from the Nave.

The soft purple lighting hides the darkness of the wood

We ventured into the Choir. I asked Nat if she had ever attended an Evensong, where it is possible to hear the choie sing during the evening service. She said she hadn’t. John and I attended one in Salisbury Cathedral and also The Southwell Minster near Nottingham on previous trips to the UK. They are a very unique experience, even if you aren’t particularly religious. Just to sit in the Choir area and listen to the beautiful voices and the service. I would like to give this opportunity to Nat.

We walk through the entrance into the Choir and spotted the throne like seat up close to the alter. It turns out this is the Bishop’s Seat.

Behind the High Alter, is The Lady Chapel, where again there were beautiful windows and also decorations on the ceilings that they wanted to drawn our attention to. In the peace of the Lady Chapel, was part of an exhibition of Images of Christ from various artists.

Along side the Lady Chapel, in the Northern Aisle was a very old book in a glass case. It was quite hard to photograph it because of the reflection and the lack of natural light. It wasn’t until I read the information alongside the case about the age of the book – written in 1280, that is 741 years ago, that they don’t want photographs taken of it. Not sure why, but perhaps flashes from cameras can damage it. It is an encyclopedia of the world history. The cover is wooden board covered in deer skin.

We left the main part of the Cathedral and walked through to the Vestibule and Chapter House. There was a tour going on in the Vestibule (the left picture with the ornate ceiling). The guide was pointing out the wires that are strung up between different parts of the ceiling and said that they are tension wires. If there is significant movement in the building, the wires will snap and point the to where there could be potential damage. In the bottom of the picture you can see a dark panel alongside what looks like a window. That indicated it was the size of a secret tunnel and if you were small enough to fit through that space, you would be able to go through a secret door and into the tunnel.

It is rumored that under parts of Chester there are many tunnels that lead around between buildings. It is suggested that they could be part of the Roman built sewerage system, rather than a secret way of getting around the city underground.

We decided to finish up our exploring of the Cathedral with a visit to the Refectory for a drink. We walked down the corridor alongside the garden. The windows are dated with events that happened over time.

Once we had had a drink in the refectory, we said our farewell to the Cathedral. It was worth the visit and if I visit Chester for longer than an afternoon, I would definitely visit again. If Nat is with me, I would take her to Evensong too, as I imagine it would be wonderful here.

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.

First glimpse of Tudor Style 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.

Amazing timber, some of which was recovered from sailing ships

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.

Want to know more, click here

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.

Oh, if only we hadn’t already eaten lunch!

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.

Life is a Journey

Tag: Architecture

Chester Cathedral

Within the City Walls – Chester