CHESTER, county borough, city, and the county town of Cheshire, England, 16 m. S. of Liverpool. Pop. (1931) 41,438. It lies in a low plain on the Dee, principally on the north (right) bank, 6 m. above the point at which the river opens out into its wide shallow estuary. It is an important railway centre, the prin cipal lines serving it being the L.M.S.R., G.W.R., L.N.E.R. and Cheshire Lines.
History.—The Roman station of Deva was founded about A.D. 48 by Ostorius Scapula, and from its key position in relation both to the North Wales coastal route and to the northward avenue past the Mersey, it became an important military and commercial centre. In A.D. 78-79 it was the winter-quarters of Agricola, and later became the permanent headquarters of Legio XX. Valeria Victrix. Many inscriptions and remains of the Roman military occupation have been found, and the north and east walls stand in great part on Roman foundations. The Saxon form of the name was Leganceaster. About 614 the city was destroyed by Aethelfrith, and lay in ruins until 907, when Aethelflaed rebuilt the walls and restored the monastery of St. Werburgh. In the reign of Aethelstan a mint was set up at Chester, and in 973 it was the scene of Edgar's triumph when, it is said, he was rowed on the Dee by six subject kings. It resisted the Conqueror, and did not finally surrender until 107o. On the erection of Cheshire into a county palatine after the Conquest, Chester became the seat of government of the palatine earls. The Domesday account of the city includes a description of the Saxon laws under which it had been governed in the time of Edward the Confessor. All the land, except the bishop's borough, was held of the earl, and assessed at fifty hides.
The earliest extant charter, granted by Henry II. in 116o, em powered the burgesses to trade with Durham as freely as they had done in the reign of Henry I. From this date a large collection of charters enumerates privileges granted by successive earls and later sovereigns. Three from John protected the trade with Ire land. Edward I. granted the citizens the fee-farm of the city at a yearly rent of £I00. In the 14th century Chester began to lose its standing as a port through the gradual silting up of the Dee estuary, and the city was further impoverished by the inroads of the Welsh. Continued misfortunes led to reductions of fee-farm by Richard II. and by Henry VI., who also made a grant for the completion of a new Dee bridge, the old one having been swept away by an unusually high tide. Henry VII. reduced the fee-farm to £20, and in 1506 granted "the Great Charter," which constituted the city a county by itself, and incorporated the governing body under the style of a mayor, twenty-four aldermen and forty com mon councilmen. This charter was confirmed by James I. and Charles II. The charter of Hugh Lupus to the abbey of St. Werburgh includes a grant of the tolls of the fair at the feast of St. Werburgh for three days, and a subsequent charter from Ranulf de Blundevill (12th century) licensed the abbot and monks to hold their fairs and markets before the abbey gates. Friction between the abbot and civic authorities lasted until, in the reign of Henry VIII., it was decreed that the right of holding fairs was vested exclusively in the citizens. Charles II. in 1685 granted a cattle fair to be held on the first Thursday in February. The city is divided into four principal blocks by the four principal streets Northgate Street, Eastgate Street, Bridge Street and Watergate Street, which radiate at right angles from the Cross, and terminate in the four gates. These four streets exhibit in what are called "the Rows" a characteristic feature of the city. In Eastgate Street, Bridge Street and Watergate Street, the Rows exist on each side of the street and form continuous galleries open to the street, from which they are approached by flights of steps. The Rows are flagged or boarded under foot and ceiled above, thus forming a covered way, standing in the same relation to the shops, which are at their back, as the foot pavement does in other towns. On the west side of Northgate Street, on the other hand, the Row is formed out of the ground floor of the houses, having cellars beneath. The Rows and the old half-timbered houses combine to give the city a picturesque and individual character. Among the ancient houses are Derby House, bearing the date 1591, Bishop Lloyd's house, and God's Providence House in Watergate Street, and the Bear and Billet in Lower Bridge Street ; the three last date from the 17th century. A mortuary chapel of the early part of the 13th century exists in the basement of a house in Bridge Street.
Chester is the only city in England that still possesses its walls perfect in their entire circuit of 2 m. The gateways have all been rebuilt at various dates : the north and east gates on the site of the Roman gates. The Grosvenor bridge, a single span of stone 200 ft. in length, one of the largest in Europe, carries the road to Wrexham and Shrewsbury over the Dee on the south-west ; while there is also an old bridge of seven arches. The castle, with the exception of "Caesar's Tower," and a round tower with adjacent buildings, was taken down in the 18th century, and replaced by a barracks, county hall, gaol and assize courts.
The cathedral church of Christ and the Virgin Mary stands towards the north of the city within the walls on an ancient site. In 1093 Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, richly endowed the original foundation as a Benedictine monastery. The bishops of Mercia had apparently a seat at Chester, but the city had ceased to be episcopal, until in 1075 Peter, bishop of Lichfield, removed his seat thence to Chester, having for his cathedral the collegiate church of St. John (see later). The see, however, was moved again to Coventry (1102), but Cheshire continued subject to Lichfield until in 1S41 Chester was erected into a bishopric by Henry VIII., the church of the dissolved abbey of St. Werburgh becoming the cathedral. The diocese covers nearly the whole of Cheshire, with small portions of Lancashire and Staffordshire. The cathedral, while not in the first rank architecturally, gains in beauty from the tones of its red sandstone walls and from its picturesque close. It is cruciform with a central tower 127 ft. high. The nave is short (145 ft.), being of six bays; the southern arcade is Decorated; while the northern differs in detail. The basement of the north-western tower is Norman and formed part of Hugh Lupus' church. The north transept also retains Norman work, and its size shows the original plan, limited by the existence of the conventual buildings to the north. The south transept has aisles, with Decorated and Perpendicular windows. The fine organ stands on a screen across the north transept. The choir is a fine example of transitional Early English Decorated enhanced by the ancient carved wooden stalls unsurpassed in England. The Lady Chapel, east of the choir, is of rich Early English workmanship. Of the conventual buildings the cloisters are Perpendicular. The chapter-house, entered by a beautiful vestibule from the east cloister, is Early English (c. 1240). The refectory, adjoining the north cloister, is of the same period, with Perpendicular insertions; it has been curtailed in size, but retains its beautiful Early English lector's pulpit. An early Norman chamber, with massive pillars and vaulting, adjoins the west cloister, and may be the substruc ture of the abbot's house. The abbey gateway is of the 14th century. Within the walls there are several churches of ancient foundation : St. Peter's is said to occupy the site of a church erected by Aethelflaed, queen of Mercia, and St. Mary's dates from the 12th century. The church of St. John, outside the walls, which became the cathedral in 1075, is a massive early Norman structure, with later additions and restorations. It was a collegiate church until 1S47. The Grosvenor Museum and School of Art, the foundation of which was suggested by Charles Kingsley the novel ist, when canon of Chester cathedral, contains local antiquities and a fine collection of the fauna of Cheshire. The King's school, founded by Henry VIII. (1541), was reorganized on the lines of a public school in 1873. Other educational institutions include the diocesan training college. Roodee, a level tract by the river at the base of the city wall, is appropriated as a race-course. An annual race-meeting is held in May. The town gains in prosperity from its large number of tourists. Other industries, metal-working, tobacco and food production are carried on without the walls. There is some shipping on the Dee but the river is principally used for pleasure vessels and rowing. The city of Chester parlia mentary division, returning one member, includes the rural district of Chester and the urban district of Hoole. The area of the county borough is 2,862 acres. In 1553 Chester first returned two mem bers to parliament. By the Redistribution Act of 1885 the repre sentation was reduced to one member. The trades of tanners, skinners and glove-makers existed at the time of the Conquest, and the importation of marten skins is mentioned in Domesday. In the 14th century the woollen trade was considerable, and in 1674 weavers and wool-combers were introduced into Chester from Norwich. The restoration of the channel of the Dee opened up a flourishing trade in Irish linen, which in 1786 was at its height, but from that date gradually diminished.
See Victoria County History, Cheshire; R. H. Morris, Chester in the Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns (Chester, 1894) ; Joseph Heming way, History of the City of Chester (2 vols., Chester, 1831).