High above visitors to the Lady Chapel in Chester Cathedral is a medieval ceiling boss depicting the murder of Thomas a Becket which should have been destroyed in 1538. That this remarkable remnant from the Middle Agaes still adorns the ceiling of the chapel is probably due to the quick-thinking of some monks and, in one of those ironies of history, a decision of the king who wanted it destroyed.

On three days each year the Duke of Westminster opens the gardens of Eaton Hall near Chester to the public in aid of charity; this continues a longstanding tradition of the Grosvenor family in welcoming visitors to their country residence. Just as Elizabeth Bennet was able to visit the gardens and the interior of the fictional Pemberley - the country house of Darcy in Pride and Prejudice - so the Grosvenor family would allow visitors to both the interior and gardens in the 19th Century. This article describes the visit of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American author, to Eaton Hall in August 1854 after which his verdict on the interior and its owner was that, “It must be like a small lobster in a shell much too large for him”.

The Point of Ayr lighthouse is a romantic landmark on Talacre beach on the westeran side of the Dee estuary. Despite being some 25 miles from the city, the lighthouse lit the entrance to a deepwater channel up the Dee estuary to the port of Chester. While the deep water channel was created in the 1730s, the construction of the lighthouse was opposed by merchant interests at Liverpool. It took a tragedy over 40 years later to ensure that the entrance to this channel up the Dee estuary was finally lit for mariners.

Rome’s influence on Chester isn’t just related to its foundation in AD74 as a fortress to protect the north west border of the Roman empire. This blog article tells the story of the events in 1527 when the imprisonment of a Pope in Rome by an Emperor led an English King to change his relationship with the church in England, resulting in the transformation of the city of Chester.

The title of this website and blog is inspired by this verdict on Chester by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who’s regarded as being one of the most important American authors of the 19^th Century. He was appointed as US Consul to Liverpool in 1853, following the election of his friend Franklin Pierce as the 14^th President of the United States, and arrived in Liverpool with his wife and three children in July of that year.