Shared Memories of Chester
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Year: 1958
wooden bridge
My uncle Bill Wright lived & worked in Chester from the war period to 1963. He was a widower and had a damp old ground floor of a rather grand house beside the wooden bridge across the Dee. My Aunts , his sisters would go up from London and stay with him and I would go every summer to stay a couple of weeks.He loved walking and would take me walking into Wales through lovely countryside.From my bedroom, through Bay windows ,I remember the mist and stillness in the early morning as swans glided along the Dee - it was magic and a memory I shall always treasure.While fishing for tadpoles I fell in the Dee and my uncle , in his sunday best, dived in and saved me !
Last edited: 28/06/2008 06:39 by Charles Wright
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Year: 1989
Boat Trip on The River Dee
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Chester. As a young child we would visit the City, and as I grew up and married we would visit with our daughters. We always loved taking the trip down the River Dee. The last time we did this was in 1989 while on vacation in England I now live in Canada.
Posted: 16/04/2008 02:27 by Brenda Vanderwert
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Year: 1955
Childhood memories
What a wonderful place to explore and grow up in, particularly as a history loving child. Born in Southport to await my father's return from army service in 1945, we soon moved back to the family origins in Chester.
The Taylor family had lived in Chester, within the walls since the mid 1700's. In the late 1940's the family of George Allan Taylor comprising myself and three brothers, Allan, Colin and Ian initially moved from Southport to Blacon but subsequently lived over our father's Barber shop at 8 Grosvenor Street (now demolished I believe) to where he had moved from 23 Lower Bridge Street.
In the 1800's the Taylor family had lived in Victoria Buildings in Lower Bridge Street. Walter Taylor b.1863 had been a Tailor and had lived in Linen Hall Street with his family until his early demise at the age of 45yrs. His widow Catherine (nee Catherall) later re-married Thomas Lea. Amongst other siblings Walter left my grandfather George Arthur Taylor b. 1891, eventually also a Barber who had a little shop in Queensferry. George had married Ellen Mary Wharton b.1891 also from Chester. In my childhood I would visit them at 36 Crane Street. It was so exciting to negotiate the rows along Bridge Street and into Watergate Street, hearing my feet tapping along those rickety floorboards.
During Race week we were able to sit outside at the back of the shop and hear the tannoys from the Roodee. This occasion was usually accompanied by a Fair, which as kids we would thoroughly enjoy. I vividly recall that one year we also attended a Medieval Regatta.
Sunday evenings were a treat for us all. We would enjoy a long walk around Chester walls with our parents George and Vera, attend St,John's Church for Evensong, courtesy of Rev.Mr.Pruen and Curate Mr.Martineau, choirmaster Mr.Coleman (we were in the choir) eventually nipping through the park and down to the river to enjoy a lemonade at the Boat House Inn whilst watching the boats on the river.
I often wonder what happened to Miss Tremlett who ran a little grocery shop in Cuppin Street just around the corner from my father's shop. Adjacent to her was a cycle shop. Next door to us Mr.Morgan ran a greengrocery shop (my first crush was his delivery boy Anthony) and next door but one in Grosvenor Street was a little sweet shop run by a Belgian lady with a fascinating accent, who would wear a white lace cap and a shawl. She kept a brass bell on her counter which we would have to ring to gain her attention. We never knew her name but thanks to my youngest brother Ian, she was always known as Mrs.Ding-a-Bell. Across the road was a nurses home and further along in the direction of the castle was Shone's shoe shop. Wonder if Billy continued the business.
Inevitably time rolled on and childhood ended with my first experience at work for Solicitors Jolliffe, Wickham and Wood after which the regular meeting place for relaxation with friends was usually The Wimpey Bar in Bridge Street rows where we would each buy one hot chocolate and take it in turns to feed the juke box until we ran out of money. How they all laughed at me when I expressed my excitement at obtaining tickets to see Russ Conway at the theatre and my exhilaration on return waving my signed photgraph (long since lost).
Oh, such memories, far more than I could mention here, Saturday morning flicks for nine pence, salmon jumping the weir, history oozing out of every footstep, so many places to hide and explore, St.Thomas' primary school, Quaintways deicatessen, Brown's of Chester, the indoor market for beautiful materials, the Museum, the boat trips to the meadows, steam engines at Chester General Station (Emerald Isle Express, Flying Scotsman, Welsh Princess).
Sadly,my parents left Chester for Essex in 1961 and had always regretted it. So have we. Now retired after thirty plus years of nursing and midwifery I intend to occasionally retrace old footsteps.
If anyone ever reads my little saga and has any knowledge/anecdotes, good or bad of the family of George Taylor or any photos of places mentioned I would be so pleased to hear from you. Please e-mail browsand@gmail.com (Sandra Brown nee Taylor)
Posted: 06/01/2008 19:34 by Sandra Brown
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Chester, Bridge Street 1888
(ref: 20595)
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Year: 1870s
J. G. Shaw and Sons c 1850 on into the 1920s
This photo shows the home and business of John Gill Shaw my great great grandfather. He was born 23 November 1813. He had 12 children some of which continued his ironmonger business into at least the 1920s. His daughter, Martha, married Henry Craven, my great grandfather, of Buckley, Wales, on 26 April 1870. They emigrated to Red Oak, Iowa, USA, in 1874. Sadly, she died in 1880 4 days after giving birth to their 5th child. If anyone would like more info on this family or business they can contact me at: wally@plaidpants.net
Last edited: 13/02/2007 14:46 by Wally Donoghue
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Year: 1947
1947 to 1956
I was born in 1942 in Upton-by-Chester and my mother's family (Maddock) owned the butcher's shop that became Toycraft on Watergate Street, and one in the Market in the sixties. My parents emigrated to Canada with me in tow in 1956 and I get a lump in my throat, still, when I look at pictures or visit.
Such a lot of history in one small area and so much that is part of my heritage. Almost every picture I have seen so far evokes memories of things that I did or happend in specific areas. I shall write more another time.
I returned with my daughter in 2003 and my uncle took us for a walk around the Walls. I remember the Fire Brigade station on Northgate Street and the Brewery that used to make me gag when i walked past. I also remember the firefighters doing a demonstration on the Roodee I think. Their engines and pumps screaming as they shot hose streams at targets. They wore brass helmets which is no longer allowed (I am a retired Fire Chief in Canada so I like to compare terminology and tactics) and used Branches which we call Nozzles.
We lived at 5 Eversley Park, 37 or 38 Liverpool Road, Glan Aber Park off Hough Green and Broughton. My Aunt Marjorie owned Holly Bank School which i attende in Kindergarten. My Uncle ran the butcher's shop on Watergate Street and finally changed it to a Toy Shop in the early sixties. His wife was a Kenyon and her parents owned a house attached to the Old Leche House in the Rows above Watergate Street, the Leche House has a hiding hole inside the chimney in the Great Room for Royalists.
It was interesting to see the Cross and what was the old barber's shop where they singed your side burns. I recall when I was very young, seeing a steam truck with a chain drive to the back wheels puffing down Eastgate Street. My daughter (31) said to me after we had visited castles and other places of interest; "Dad I think I am all Castled Out". It is a real culture shock to see so much antiquity compared to what is considered old in Canada.
Last edited: 06/02/2007 18:46 by Patrick Hampson
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Chester, the Church of St-Mary-without-the-Walls 1906
(ref: 55280)
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Year: 1966
English at heart
I am an American who went to school in Chester in 1966/67. Rather, should I say, I was registered for school at Chester College. However, I can't say I was actually in the building very often. There just always seemed to be somewhere else to go, and something more interesting to see instead.
I arrived in Chester just as the hippies were raising their flowered heads back here in the beach areas of southern California where I came from, which had interested my new friends in Chester. I remember my new English friend Tristin wearing very, very long hair (for 1966) a burlap caftan and sandles, riding a donkey from the college across the Dee bridge to the Cathedral, while the rest of us followed chanting and waving branches that were supposed to resemble palm fronds of some sort. As I recall, we were the first hippies in Chester, but then I also seem to recall that the very next day we went right back to being Mods. The donkey had been extremely disagreeable, and the caftans were quite breezy for November, as well as scratchy.
I remember throwing bits of cotton candy to the swans on the river Dee because we didn't have bread with us, but the cotton candy immediately disolved upon hitting the water, and we had to run for our lives when the pissed off swans came up out of the water and chased us around the bandstand. I would now like to sincerely apologize to the very slow little old couple with the walking canes who tried to hide behind a tree.
I remember playing my Motown soul albums in the college common room, on one of the rare occasions when I was INSIDE the building. My new English friends wanted me to teach them how to dance the 'Soul Strut'. It was just a minor point that I had never been to a dance in my life, but had I not watched American Bandstand every week? It did not seem necessary to explain such a small detail to any of them. I may not have been a good student in that building, but I must have been a dazzling teacher.
I remember making the first skateboard anyone at the college had ever seen, made from an old board and the old clamp-on type of roller skates, like we made skateboards back in California. I noisely rode the skateboard up and down the sidewalk next to the college, making a terrible racket, and doing my best surfer moves. I looked up and saw faces watching me from every window, including some decidedly angry teachers, although I did not recognize any teachers; I was never in class enough to recognize faces of staff, you know.
I have so many more good memories of the two years I lived in Chester. I often think of the people I met there, and wonder how their lives turned out. I also wonder how much the town has changed over the years. It was the best time of my life.
Posted: 13/12/2006 08:02 by Linda Ashworth
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