The Curious Guide Chester

28/05/2024

CRIMINAL CHESTER Walking Tour Saturday 1st June @ 4pm

Take a stroll through the ancient streets of Chester to hear the true crime stories of Medieval traitors, Tudor heretics and Georgian highwaymen, as well as "vagabonds" and vicious murderers throughout the city’s 2000 years of history. This public walking tour takes you to many of Chester’s famous sights, such as the Cross, the cathedral and Chester Castle – but reveals a cruel, dark, alternative story of the city in the places where Cheshire’s criminal element was caught, tried and punished over the centuries.

19/02/2024

BLOG POST: The Point of Ayr lighthouse remains a romantic landmark on Talacre beach at the entrance to the Dee estuary. What is less well-known is that it’s part of Chester’s maritime heritage as, despite being some 25 miles from the city, it was constructed in 1776 by a Trust of the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of Chester. There’d been a plan to light the entrance to the Dee’s deeper water navigable channel up to the wharves at Chester since the 1730s, but it’d been opposed by merchant interests at Liverpool.

It took a tragedy in October 1775 to overcome lobbying by Chester’s great regional rival.

Read more at:
www.thecuriousguide.com/en/post/pointofayrlighthouse

08/02/2024

Part of Chester’s unique network of medieval covered shopping streets, the Rows, on Eastgate with St Peter's Church in the background.

When the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne visited Chester in 1853 he pointed out that the Rows “have many advantages, as the passengers being sheltered from the rain, and there being within the shops that dimmer light by which tradesmen like to exhibit their wares.”

In the 21st Century the retailers’ lighting is much improved, but the Rows still get more footfall on a rainy day.

Read more about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s visit to Chester and his first impressions of ‘Old England’ in my blog:
www.thecuriousguide.com/en/post/there-is-not-a-more-curious-place-in-the-world

28/03/2023

A typical house designed by John Douglas on the Grosvenor estate just outside Chester, built in red brick with a steep pitched roof and its tall, ribbed chimney stacks.

Join me on a ‘A Glimpse of Old England’ walking tour of Chester city centre to hear more about the Grosvenor family and their influence on the history and architecture of the city.

www.thecuriousguide.com/en/page/tours

07/07/2022

07/07/2022

07/07/2022