The Historic Towns Trust aims to maps towns and cities across Great Britain, so we are delighted that a project to map Chester, in the north-west of England, is now well under way. Tom Pickles and Katherine Wilson of the University of Chester, who are leading the project, describe how it got under way and what is so interesting and important about Chester itself.
"When we began working at the University of Chester in 2012-2013, we were invited to the launch of Discover Medieval Chester. This was the culmination of two Arts and Humanities Research Council funded projects led by Catherine Clarke (now Director of the Centre for the History of People, Place and Community at the Institute of Historical Research, with responsibility for the Victora County History) and Keith Lilley (recent Chair of HTT). Mapping Medieval Chester (https://medievalchester.ac.uk/) had created digital maps of medieval Chester and analysed texts to explore space, place and identity. Discover Medieval Chester (https://discover.medievalchester.ac.uk/) had created wonderful resources to present medieval Chester to the public – maps, tours, performances, art, and games. Wherever possible, we determined to use our positions at Chester
to emulate these projects and raise public awareness of the historic development of the city. When Keith Lilley approached us to produce an HTT Historical Map and Atlas, we jumped at the opportunity.
"Over more than a decade working in Chester we have come to think of it as the lost capital of Britain. The huge Roman fortress of Deva may result from an aspiration to use this location to dominate the Irish Sea. Until the sixteenth century, it was the most important seaport, commercial centre, and city in the northwest (when it began to be eclipsed by Liverpool). From the tenth century onwards, it was the capital of Cheshire and, as the centre of the earldom of Cheshire, from the twelfth century it became a jurisdictional immunity from royal administration; the earldom passed into royal hands and the city played a prominent role in Edward I’s campaigns in Wales, in the turbulent politics of Richard II’s reign, and as a royalist stronghold in the Civil War. All this is etched in the surviving built environment. The playing-card layout of the fortress is still visible in the plan of the streets, an almost complete circuit of medieval and early modern walls encircle the city, including the iconic Water Tower once reaching out into the River Dee, and parts of the Civil War defences remain, like Prince Rupert’s Trench. Spanning a substantial part of this history, the unique Rows – two storey timbered buildings serving as shops and residences with interlinked first-floor level covered galleries – were established in the Middle Ages and rebuilt through into the nineteenth century.
"To create an HTT Historical Map, we have adopted a collaborative approach. Our second year History programme includes a Work Based Learning module where students are asked to complete real-world projects. With the blessing of Catherine Clarke and the Victoria County History team, we gave the students existing HTT Historical Maps, asked them to model the contents, structure, and word lengths, and then divide up the research. They used the excellent Victoria County History of Chester and published guides to draft the text, as well as the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies image bank and Grosvenor Museum collection to identify illustrations. Using this as ‘proof of concept’, we secured University of Chester internal funding for impact and public engagement to work with the HTT and Chester stakeholders to produce the Map. During June and July we circulated the draft to our prominent societies – the Chester Archaeological Society, the Chester Historical Society, and the Chester Society for Landscape History – and undertook public consultations at the Chester Heritage Festival and Chester Festival of Ideas. Drawing together all the wonderful responses, we are busy redrafting the text, and we now have a healthy number of volunteers to collaborate in production of an Historical Atlas too."
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