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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Chester
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(80,000 in 1991)
One of England's oldest and best preserved cities; administrative centre of Cheshire. It was founded by the *Romans in the 1st century == AD=, on a curve of the river Dee, as the chief base for their legions in the northwest. The Roman name for the town itself was Deva, but 'Chester' derives from the first word of the Latin Castra Devana (camp on the Dee).
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Chester is the only city in England where the entire circuit of the medieval city wall survives. In the Middle Ages it was a prosperous port, until the Dee silted up. That was the period, too, of Chester's cycle of *mystery plays, revived in modern times outside the cathedral. This was originally the church of a Benedictine abbey (11–16C, much restored in the 19C). It acquired the status of a cathedral in 1541, when Chester became an Anglican diocese.
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The east gate of the city wall is surmounted by the Eastgate Clock, an elaborate wrought-iron timepiece presented to the city in 1897 to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. But the most striking of all Chester's attractions are the Rows, a unique architectural feature in which the houses – many of them black-and-white *timber-frame buildings of the 16C – include at first-floor level a continuous covered shopping arcade.
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The Grosvenor Museum opened in 1886 in a Renaissance-style building designed for the purpose by a local architect, Thomas Lockwood (1830–1900). It specializes in local items, including decorative arts and paintings, and has a particularly strong collection from Chester's Roman period.
The Roodee, a meadow by the river, has been used for horseracing since the 16C, making Chester races England's oldest meeting.
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