Chester ( ) is a city in
Cheshire
, England
.
Lying on
the River Dee, close to the border
with Wales
, it is home
to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous
settlement of the wider unitary
authority area of Cheshire West and Chester
, which had a population of 328,100 according to the
2001 Census.
Chester was granted
city status in 1541.
Chester
was founded as a "castrum" or Roman fort with
the name Deva
Victrix
in the year 79 by the Roman Legio II Adiutrix. Chester's four
main roads, Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate and Bridge, follow
routes laid out at this time – almost 2,000 years ago. One of
the three main Roman army bases, Deva later became a major
settlement in the
Roman province of
Britannia.
After the Romans left in the 5th century,
the Saxons fortified the town against the
Danes
and gave Chester its name. The patron saint of
Chester, Werburgh, is buried in Chester
Cathedral
.
Chester was one of the last towns in England to fall to the
Normans in the
Norman conquest of England.
William the Conqueror ordered
the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby
Welsh border. In 1071 he created
Hugh d'Avranches, the
1st
Earl of Chester.
Chester has the reputation of being the "English medieval city
par excellence", but many of its buildings are from the
Victorian era.
Along with Derry
, Chester
makes a claim for being one of the best preserved complete walled
cities in the British Isles It has the most complete city walls in Great Britain, and most
sections of the walls are listed Grade
I. The Industrial Revolution brought
railways, canals, and new roads to the city, which saw substantial
expansion and development – Chester Town Hall
and the Grosvenor Museum
are examples of Victorian architecture from this
period.
History
Roman
The
Romans founded Chester as Deva
Victrix in the 70s AD in the land of the Celtic
Cornovii, according to ancient
cartographer Ptolemy, as
a
fortress during the Roman expansion
northward. It was named Deva either after the goddess of the Dee,
or directly from the British name for the river. The 'victrix' part
of the name was taken from the title of the
Legio XX Valeria Victrix
which was based at Deva. A civilian settlement grew around the
military base, probably originating from trade with the fortress.
The
fortress was 20% larger than other fortresses in Britannia built around the same time at York
(Eboracum
) and Caerleon
(Isca
Augusta
); this has led to the suggestion that the fortress,
rather than London (Londinium
), was intended to become the capital of the
Roman province of Britannia Superior. The civilian amphitheatre
, which was built in the 1st century, could seat
between 8,000 and 10,000 people. It is the largest known
military amphitheatre in Britain, and is also a
Scheduled Monument.
The Minerva
Shrine
in the Roman quarry is the only rock cut Roman
shrine still in situ in Britain. The
fortress was garrisoned by the
legion until
at least the late 4th century.
Although the army had abandoned the fortress
by 410 when the Romans retreated from Britannia, the
civilian settlement continued (probably with some Roman veterans
staying behind with their wives and children) and its occupants
probably continued to use the fortress and its defences as
protection from raiders from the Irish Sea
.
Medieval
Deverdoeu
was still one of two Welsh language
names for Chester in the late
12th century; its other and more
enduring Welsh name was 'Caerlleon', literally "the fortress-city
of the legions", a name identical with that of the Roman fortress
at the other end of the Welsh Marches
at Caerleon
in Monmouthshire,
namely Isca
Augusta
. The
colloquial
modern Welsh name is the shortened form, Caer. The early
Old English speaking
Anglo Saxon settlers used a name which had the
same meaning, Legacæstir, which was current until the
11th century, when, in a further parallel with
Welsh usage, the first element fell out of use and the simplex name
Chester emerged. From the
14th century
to the
18th the city's prominent
position in
North West England
meant that it was commonly also known as Westchester. This name was
used by Celia Fiennes when she visited the city in 1698.
Industrial history
Chester played a significant part in the
Industrial Revolution which began in
the North West of England in the latter part of the 18th century.
The city
village of Newtown, located north east of the city and bounded by
the Shropshire
Union Canal
was at the very heart of this
industryThe large Chester Cattle Market and the two
Chester railway stations, Chester
General
and Chester Northgate Station
, meant that Newtown
with its cattle market and canal, and Hoole
with its
railways were responsible for providing the vast majority of
workers and in turn, the vast amount of Chester's wealth production
throughout the Industrial Revolution.
Archaeology
Between 14 May 2007 and 6 July 2007, excavations were carried out
in Grosvenor Park. The main aim was to find
Cholmondeley's lost mansion, which was
demolished in 1867.
A number of finds have come to light including:
- Plaster work from the mansion ceiling.
- Civil War musket balls
- Clay tobacco pipes (17th-18th century)
- Clay tobacco pipe waster clay from manufacture
- A base of a small Roman statue of Venus
- A Roman votive offering in the form of a lead axe head.
Modern era
A
considerable amount of land in Chester is owned by the Duke of
Westminster who owns an estate, Eaton
Hall
, near the village of Eccleston
. He also has London
properties
in Mayfair
.
Grosvenor is the Duke's family name,
which explains such features in the City such as the Grosvenor
Bridge
, the Grosvenor Hotel
, and Grosvenor Park. Much of Chester's
architecture dates from the
Victorian
era, many of the buildings being modelled on the
Jacobean half-timbered style and
designed by
John Douglas,
who was employed by the Duke as his principal architect. He had a
trademark of twisted chimney stacks, many of which can be seen on
the buildings in the city centre.
Douglas designed amongst other buildings the Grosvenor Hotel and
the City Baths. In 1911, Douglas' protégé and city architect
James Strong designed the then active
fire station on the west side of Northgate Street. Another feature
of all buildings belonging to the estate of Westminster is the
'Grey Diamonds' – a weaving pattern of grey bricks in the red
brickwork laid out in a diamond formation.
Towards the end of WWII, a lack of affordable housing meant many
problems for Chester.
Large areas of farmland on the outskirts of
the city were developed as residential areas in the 1950s and early
1960s producing, for instance, the suburb of Blacon
.In
1964, a bypass was built through and around the town centre to
combat traffic congestion.
These new developments caused local concern as the physicality and
therefore the feel of the city was being dramatically altered. In
1968, a report by Donald Insall in collaboration with authorities
and government recommended that historic buildings be preserved in
Chester. Consequently, the buildings were used in new and different
ways instead of being flattened.
In 1969 the City Conservation Area was designated.
Over the next 20
years the emphasis was placed on saving historic buildings, such as
The Falcon
Inn
, Dutch Houses and Kings Buildings.
On 13 January 2002, Chester was granted
Fairtrade City status. This status was
renewed by the
Fairtrade
Foundation on 20 August 2003.
Renaissance

The weir on the River Dee, Chester
(2002)
In 2007 Chester Council announced a 10-year plan to see Chester
become a "must see European destination". At a cost of
£1.3 billion it has been nicknamed Chester Renaissance. A
website was launched by the Renaissance team, so that interested
parties could monitor progress on all the projects.
There are overall, seven developments ongoing in Chester.
The Northgate Development project began in 2007 with the demolition
of St. Martin's House on the city's ring road. At a cost of
£460 million, Chester City Council and developers ING hope to
create a new quarter for Chester. The development will see the
demolition of the market hall, bus station, theatre and NCP car
park. In its place will be a new multi-storey car park, bus
exchange, performing arts centre, library, homes, retail space and
a department store which will be anchored by House of Fraser.
On October 31, 2008, it was revealed that Chester's much heralded
Northgate development was to be put on hold until 2012 due to the
ongoing credit crunch. However a number of Chester's other
Renaissance projects continue at pace. The current active projects
are; The Delamere Street development and The £60million HQ
development.
Governance
Chester
is an unparished area within the
unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester
as of 1 April 2009 replacing the old Chester City
Council and the local ward is the City ward electing 3
councillors. A small area around Chester
Castle
remains a civil parish
of Chester
Castle
. The Council was elected in May 2008 and the
current councillors for the City Ward are Max E A Drury, Richard
Lowe, and Tom Parry, all three representing the Conservative Party.
The Member of Parliament for the City of Chester is
Christine Russell
Twin towns
Chester is twinned with
Geography
Chester lies at the southern end of a
Triassic sandstone ridge
that rises to a height of 42 m within a natural S-bend in the River
Dee (before the course was altered in the
18th century).The bedrock, which is also known
as the Chester Pebble Beds, is noticeable because of the many small
stones trapped within its strata. Retreating glacial sheet ice also
deposited quantities of sand and
marl across
the area where boulder clay was absent.
The eastern and northern part of Chester consisted of heathland and
forest.
The western side towards the Dee Estuary
was marsh and wetland habitats.
Climate
As with most of the United Kingdom, Chester has an
oceanic climate.
Divisions and suburbs
Bache
, Blacon
, Boughton
, Curzon
Park
, Great
Boughton
, Handbridge
, Hoole
, Huntington
, Lache
, Mollington,
Newton
, Newtown
, Saltney
, Saughall
, Upton
, Vicars Cross
, Westminster Park
Demography
There are 77,040 living within the Greater Chester urban area (65%
of the total of Chester District). This population is forecast to
grow by 5% in the period 2005 to 2021. The resident population for
Chester District in the
2001 Census was 118,210. This
represents 17.5% of the Cheshire County total (1.8% of the North
West population).
Economy
The
city's central shopping area includes its unique Rows
or galleries (two levels of shops) which date from
medieval times and are believed to include
the oldest shop front in England. The city has many chain
stores, both in the centre and in retail parks to the west, and
also features an indoor market, a department store (
Browns of Chester, now absorbed by the
Debenhams chain), and two main indoor
shopping centres: The Grosvenor Mall and the Forum (a reference to
the City's Roman past). The Forum, which houses stores and the
Chester Market, will be demolished in the Northgate Development
scheme to make way for new shopping streets, a new indoor market,
an enlarged library, a car park and bus station, and a performing
arts centre.
Chester's main industries are now the service industries,
comprising retail, tourism and financial services. Chester's main
employer is
Bank of America,
formerly
MBNA Europe. There are also several
large financial firms including
HBOS plc and
M&S Money.
At Ellesmere
Port
is a large Shell
oil refinery. Just over the Welsh border to the west, near
the village of Broughton
, there is an Airbus UK
factory (formerly British
Aerospace), where the wings of Airbus
aircraft, including the Airbus A380 are
manufactured, and there are food processing plants to the north and
west. The
Iceland
frozen food company is based in nearby Deeside.
Chester
has its own university, the University
of Chester
, and a major hospital, the Countess of
Chester Hospital
, named after Diana, Princess of Wales and
Countess of Chester.
Transport
Canals
From about 1794 to the late 1950s, when the canal-side flour mills
were closed,
narrowboats carried cargo
such as coal, slate, gypsum or lead ore as well as finished lead
(for roofing, water pipes and sewerage) from the leadworks in
Egerton Street (Newtown).
Grain from Cheshire was stored in granaries
on the banks of the canal at Newtown and Boughton and salt for
preserving food arrived from Northwich
.
The
Chester Canal had locks down to
the River Dee. Canal boats could enter the river at high tide to
load goods directly onto seagoing vessels. The port facilities at
Crane Wharf, by Chester racecourse, made an important contribution
to the commercial development of the north-west region .
The
original Chester Canal was constructed to run from the River Dee near Sealand
Road
, to Nantwich
in south Cheshire, and opened in 1774.
In 1805,
the Wirral section of the Ellesmere Canal
was opened, which ran from Netherpool (now known as
Ellesmere
Port
) to meet the Chester Canal at Chester canal
basin. Later, those two canal branches became part
of the Shropshire
Union Canal
network. This canal, which runs beneath the
northern section of the city walls of Chester, is navigable and
remains in use today.
Proposed canal
The
original plan to complete the Ellesmere Canal was to connect
Chester directly to the Wrexham coalfields by building a broad-gauge waterway that stretched from the River Dee
at Holt
to the
Llangollen
Canal
at Trevor Basin, near Wrexham. However with
the advent of railways and high land prices, the plan was
eventually abandoned in the mid 19th century.
If the waterway had
been built, canal traffic would have crossed the Pontcysyllte
Aqueduct
heading north to the River Dee. Boats would
then have sailed on to Chester rejoining the Shropshire Union Canal
through a purpose-built lock flight at Boughton.
As the route was never completed, the short length of canal north
of Trevor was infilled. The Llangollen Canal, although designed to
be primarily a water source from the River Dee, became a cruising
waterway despite its inherent narrow nature.
It would be rail that was to bring Welsh coal to Chester.
Railways
Chester formerly had two railway stations.
Chester
General
railway station remains in use but Chester
Northgate
closed in 1969 as a result of the Beeching Axe. Chester Northgate, which
was located North East of the city centre, opened in 1875 as a
terminus for the
Cheshire Lines Committee.
Trains
travelled via Northwich
to Manchester
Central
. Later services also went to Wrexham
General
via Shotton Station
. It was demolished in the 1970s; the site is
part of the Northgate
Arena leisure centre
.
Chester General, which opened in 1848, was designed with an
Italianate frontage. It now has seven
designated platforms but once had more.
The station lost its
original roof in the 1972 Chester General rail crash
. In September 2007 extensive renovations
took place to improve pedestrian access, and parking. The present
station has manned ticket offices and barriers, waiting rooms,
toilets, shops and a pedestrian bridge with lifts. Chester General
also had a large marshalling yard and engine sheds, most of which
has now been replaced with housing.

The Dee Bridge disaster in May
1847
Normal
scheduled departures from Chester Station are: multiple services on
the North Wales Coast Line;
Virgin Trains to London
Euston
via Crewe
; Arriva Trains Wales to Manchester
Piccadilly
via Warrington Bank Quay
and Cardiff Central
via Wrexham General
; Northern Rail to
Manchester Piccadilly via Northwich
; Merseyrail to
Liverpool
on the Wirral
Line.
In late
1847 the Dee bridge
disaster
occurred when a bridge span collapsed as a train
passed over the River Dee by the
Roodee
.
Five people were killed in the accident. The bridge had been
designed and built by famed-railway engineer
Robert Stephenson for the
Chester and Holyhead Railway. A
Royal Commission inquiry found that
the
trusses were made of cast iron beams that
had inadequate strength for their purpose. A national scandal
ensued many new bridges of similar design were either taken down or
heavily altered.
Trams
Chester had an extensive tram network during the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. It covered an area as far west as Saltney, on
the Welsh border, to Chester General station, Tarvin Road and Great
Boughton in the northwest. The network featured the narrowest gauge
trams (3' 6") in mainland Britain, due to an act of Parliament
which deemed that they must be the least obstructive
possible.
The tramway was established in 1871 by Chester Tramways
Corporation. It was horse-drawn until its electrification by
overhead cables in 1903. The tramway was closed, like most others
in the UK, in February 1930. All that remains are small areas of
uncovered track inside the bus depot, and a few tram-wire supports
attached to buildings on Eastgate/Foregate Street, although
substantial sections of the track remain buried beneath the current
road surface.
Roads
The city
is a hub for major roads, including the M53
motorway towards the Wirral Peninsula
and Liverpool
and the M56 motorway
towards Manchester
. The A55 road runs
along the North Wales coast to Holyhead
and the A483 links the
city to nearby Wrexham
and Swansea
to the far south.
Bus transport in the city is provided by
First Group and
Arriva,
the council owned and operated
ChesterBus
(formerly Chester City Transport) having been sold to
First Group in mid-2007. There are plans to
build a new bus exchange in the city as well as a new coach
station.
Cycling Demonstration Town
On June 19, 2008, then
Transport
Secretary Ruth Kelly named Chester as a
Cycling Demonstration Town. This
initiative allows for substantial financial support to improve
cycling facilities in the city, and a number of schemes are planned
or already in development.
Potential
schemes include a new pedestrian and cycling bridge across the
River Dee, linking the Meadows with Huntington and Great Boughton, an access route
between Curzon
Park
and the Roodee
, an
extension to the existing greenway route from Hoole
to Guilden
Sutton
and Mickle Trafford
, and an access route between the Millennium cycle
route and Deva Link.
Landmarks and tourist attractions
- See also Grade I listed buildings in
Chester
The more
unusual landmarks in the city are the city walls, the Rows
and the
black-and-white architecture. The walls encircle the bounds
of the medieval city and constitute the most complete city walls in
Britain, the full circuit measuring nearly . The only break in the
circuit is in the southwest section in front of County Hall.
A
footpath runs along the top of the walls, crossing roads by bridges
over Eastgate, Northgate
, St Martin's Gate, Watergate
, Bridgegate
, Newgate, and the Wolf Gate, and passing a series
of structures, namely Phoenix Tower (or King Charles' Tower),
Morgan's Mount, the Goblin Tower (or Pemberton's Parlour), and
Bonewaldesthorne's Tower
with a spur leading to the Water
Tower
, and Thimbleby's Tower. On Eastgate is
Eastgate
Clock
which is said to be the most photographed clock in
England after Big Ben
.

Black-and-white architecture at 29-31
Northgate
The Rows are unique in Britain. They consist of buildings with
shops or dwellings on the lowest two storeys. The shops or
dwellings on the ground floor are often lower than the street and
are entered by steps, which sometimes lead to a
crypt-like
vault.
Those on the first floor are entered behind a continuous walkway,
often with a sloping shelf between the walkway and the railings
overlooking the street. Much of the architecture of central Chester
looks medieval and some of it is. But by far the greatest part of
it, including most of the black-and-white buildings, is
Victorian, a result of what
Pevsner termed the "
black-and-white revival".
The most
prominent buildings in the city centre are the town
hall
and the cathedral
. The town hall was opened in 1869. It is in
Gothic Revival style and
has a tower and a short spire.
The cathedral was formerly the church of
St
Werburgh's Abbey
. Its architecture dates back to the
Norman era, with additions made most
centuries since. A series of major restorations took place in the
19th century and in 1975 a separate bell tower was opened. The
elaborately carved
canopies of the
choirstalls are considered to be one of the finest in the country.
Also in the cathedral is the
shrine of
St Werburgh. To the north of the
cathedral are the former
monastic
buildings.
The oldest church in the city is St
John's
, which is outside the city walls and was at one
time the cathedral church. The church was shortened after
the
dissolution of the
monasteries and ruins of the former east end remain outside the
church. Much of the interior is in Norman style and this is
considered to be the best example of 11th–12th century church
architecture in Cheshire.
At the intersection of the former Roman
roads is Chester Cross, to the north of which is the small church
of St
Peter’s
which is in use as an ecumenical centre.
Other
churches are now redundant and have other uses; St
Michael’s
in Bridge Street is a heritage centre, St
Mary-on-the-Hill
is an educational centre, and Holy
Trinity
now acts as the Guildhall. Other notable
buildings include the preserved shot tower
, the highest structure in Chester.
Roman remains can still be found in the city, particularly in the
basements of some of the buildings and in the lower parts of the
northern section of the city walls.
The most important Roman feature is the
amphitheatre
just outside the walls which is undergoing
archaeological investigation. Roman artifacts are on display
in the Roman Gardens which run parallel to the city walls from
Newgate to the River Dee, where there's also a reconstructed
hypocaust system. An original hypocaust
system can be seen in the basement of the
Spudulike restaurant on Bridge Street, which is
open to the public.
Of the
medieval city the most important surviving structure is Chester
Castle
, particularly the Agricola Tower. Much of
the rest of the castle has been replaced by the
neoclassical county court and its
entrance, the Propyleum.
To the south of the city runs the River Dee, with its 11th century weir
. The river is crossed by the Old Dee
Bridge
, dating from the 13th century, the Grosvenor
Bridge
of 1832, and Queen's Park suspension bridge (for
pedestrians). To the southwest of the city the River Dee
curves towards the north.
The area between the river and the city
walls here is known as the Roodee, and contains Chester
Racecourse
which holds a series of horse races and other
events. The Shropshire Union Canal
runs to the north of the city and a branch leads
from it to the River Dee.
The major
museum in Chester is the Grosvenor Museum
which includes a collection of Roman tombstones and
an art gallery. Associated with
the museum is 20 Castle Street in which rooms are furnished in
different historical styles. The
Dewa Roman Experience has hands-on
exhibits and a reconstructed Roman street. And one of the blocks in
the forecourt of the castle houses the Cheshire Military
Museum.
The major
public park in Chester is Grosvenor Park
. On the south side of the River Dee, in
Handbridge
, is Edgar's Field, another public park, which
contains Minerva's Shrine
, a Roman shrine to the goddess Minerva. A
war
memorial to those who died in the world wars is in the town
hall and it contains the names of all Chester servicemen who died
in the
First World War.
Chester Visitor Centre, opposite the Roman Amphitheatre, issues a
leaflet giving details of tourist attractions. Those not covered
above include cruises on the River Dee and on the Shropshire Union
Canal, and guided tours on an open-air bus. The river cruises start
from a riverside area known as the Groves, which contains seating
and a
bandstand. A series of festivals is
organised in the city, including
mystery
plays, a summer music festival and a literature festival.
Chester City Council has
produced a series of leaflets for self-guided walks.
Tourist Information Centres are at the town
hall and at Chester Visitor Centre.
Culture
Arts and sport
In 2007, Chester's cultural sector was going through a major
transformation.
The Gateway Theatre
had closed as part of the Northgate Development and
so too had the Odeon cinema, which opened on 3 October 1936.
The site was earmarked for redevelopment, with the closed Odeon
cinema being the subject of a proposal to re-open it as part of an
arts complex with a cinema at its heart; or its owners, Brook
Leisure, may pursue planning permission to turn it into a
nightclub. Numerous
public houses and
wine bars, some of which date from medieval times, populate the
city. Chester also has some nightclubs, which are soon going to be
added to by the development of two new clubs in the next eighteen
months.
Chester has its own film society, a number of successful amateur
dramatic societies and theatre schools for youngsters.
To the
east side of the city are the UK's largest zoological gardens, Chester Zoo
.
Chester
City football club plays in the
Conference National, one step before the football league.
They were
elected to the Football League in
1931, and have played at their Deva Stadium
, straddling the England–Wales border, since
1992. The team was relegated out of the Football League in
2009 and went into administration. Notable former players include
Ian Rush (who also managed the club),
Cyrille Regis,
Arthur Albiston,
Earl Barrett,
Lee
Dixon,
Steve Harkness,
Roberto Martínez and
Stan Pearson.
The city also has a professional basketball team in the national
league, the
BBL
Championship.
BiG Storage
Cheshire Jets play at the city's Northgate Arena
leisure centre; and a wheelchair basketball team,
Celtic Warriors, formerly known as the Chester Wheelchair
Jets.
Chester Rugby Club (
union) plays in the English Midlands One
Division. It won the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup in the 2007-08
season and has also won the Cheshire Cup several times.
There is a successful hockey club,
Chester
HC, who play at the County Officers' Club on Plas Newton Lane,
and also an American Football team, the
Chester Romans, part of the British American
Football League.
Chester
Racecourse
hosts several flat race meetings from the spring to
the autumn. The races take place within view of the City
walls and attract tens of thousands of visitors. The May meeting
includes several nationally significant races such as the
Chester Vase, which is recognised as a trial
for the Epsom Derby.
The River
Dee is home to rowing clubs, notably Grosvenor Rowing Club and
Royal Chester Rowing Club, as well as two school clubs, The King's
School Chester
Rowing Club and Queen's Park High Rowing
Club. The weir is used by a number of local canoe and kayak
clubs. Each July the
Chester Raft
Race is held on the River Dee in aid of charity.
Chester
Golf Club
can also be found near the banks of the
Dee.
Music
Chester has a brass band that was formed in 1853. It was known as
the Blue Coat Band and today as The City of Chester Band. It is a
fourth section brass band with a training band. Its members wear a
blue-jacketed uniform with an image of the Eastgate clock on the
breast pocket of the blazer.
Pop band
Mansun are probably the most famous
Britpop band to come from Chester.
Media
Chester's newspapers are the daily
Chester Evening Leader, and the
weekly
Chester Chronicle.
It also has free publications, such as the newspapers
Midweek Chronicle and
Chester Standard and the free student
magazine
Wireless.
Dee 106.3 is the city's radio station, with
Heart Wrexham and
BBC Radio Merseyside also broadcasting
locally. Chester is where
Channel 4's
soap-opera
Hollyoaks is set (although most
filming takes place around Liverpool).
Notable people
- Anthony Thwaite (born 1930),
poet and writer.
- The grammarian and lexicographer A.
S. Hornby
(1898–1978) was also born in the city.
- Randolph Caldecott (1846–86),
artist and book illustrator, was born in Bridge Street,
Chester.
- The conductor Sir Adrian Boult
(1889–1983), was born in Liverpool Road.
- Beatrice
Tinsley (née Hill) (1941–1981), astronomer and cosmologist, professor of astronomy at
Yale
University
was also born in the city but was brought up in New
Zealand.
- David
Roberts (1859–1928) the engineer who invented the caterpillar track, grew up in Great
Boughton
.
- L. T.
C. Rolt
(1910–74), engineering historian was born in Chester,
- James Hamilton, author of children's books.
Actors
Comedians
- Russ Abbot (born 1947) (birth name
Russell A. Roberts), musician, comedian and actor.
- Jeff Green (born 1964),
comedian.
- Bob Mills (born 1957),
comedian and gameshow host.
Sport
Musicians
Curators
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
External links