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The Ghosts of Chester: City Walls, River Dee, Infirmary, Bombay Palace, Queen Hotel, Pied Bull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBxOr748MkM
The Ghosts of Chester: City Walls, River Dee, Infirmary, Bombay Palace, Queen Hotel, Pied Bull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBxOr748MkM
Walking tour of Overleigh Cemetery
Handbridge Chester CH4 7HL
2024
https://twitter.com/rphwoods
Every Friday April - September
4pm (New later time) Prompt
£10 Per Head
Tickets: Chester Visitor Infomation Centre Chester Town Hall CH1 2HJ 01244 405 340. Pay by Cash or Card.
Join Caroline and I at 4pm for this expert weekly guided walk in Chester.
Tour starts from the cemetery back gate off the roundabout. Because the tour guide arrives by car and needs parking.
The tour is not in the historic centre of Chester. But just outside in the nice suburb of Handbridge.
About a twenty minute walk from the Town Hall.
Directions to the start of the tour: Walk down Bridge Street turn right onto Grosvenor Street and go across the bridge and turn left at the roundabout.
Stories of local celebrities from the graveside. A nice woodland walk around the old Victorian part only.
Expert qualified guides. The tour lasts a good 90 minutes or more.
Find out about the lives of John Douglas, Thomas Lockwood, Randolph Caldecott and more.
The paths leading to the groves near St. John's church are said to be haunted by a monk. He appears in a cowl and speaks to people in Anglo-Saxon.
(The coffin placed high up in the wall in the first picture is a folly placed there to fill a gap in the masonry. But the coffin is and genuine solid oak coffin from the 14th century.)
According to legend in 1066 King Harold fled from Hastings and took refuge as an anchorite in a cell attached to St John's.
The Organ in St John's was the one used for the coronation of Queen Victoria in West Minster Abbey. It was moved to St John's in 1838.
Click on the pictures to find out more about St. John's Church >>>
Tudor house is about 400 years old. Once it had the rows passing along the first floor.
But this was enclosed as the rows disappeared from Lower Bridge Street.
The first floor is said to be haunted by the ghost of a cavalier from the civil wars.
He was shot in the head in the rows. It is possible he was stuck by a cannon ball fired from the captured royalist mount in Handbridge.
A ghost of a Roman soldier haunts this area of the walls next to the Roman Southeast corner tower. He appears floating at the height of the original roman wall.
The City Walls by Night
Poltergeist Activity
The sweet shop 'Thornton's' on Eastgate Street has been the scene of Poltergeist activity in previous years.
St. Mary's-on-the-hill
The area around the hill of St. Mary's-on-the-hill, is haunted by a herd of cows and their owner. Who used to take them every day from the hill to the meadows for grazing. It is said that people living near by still hear the cowbells ringing, as the ghostly cows are being herded to the meadows.
St. Mary's graveyard was used to bury people who had been executed in the castle. This includes three witches from the 17th century.
Chester Cathedral ley line
Ley lines are earth energy lines which sprits travel along. This ley line runs to the right of St. Werburgh Street and through the chancel of the cathedral. High up on the building on the corner is a carving of St. Michael slaying the dragon. This marks the path of the ley line. St Michael slaying the dragon symbolises Christianity over coming paganism. The dragon is also a symbol of earth energy.
Billy Hobby's Well
There is a spring at the back of Grosvenor park next to the river. This area is said to be haunted by a mischievous goblin called 'Billy Hobby'. The well head on the street was designed by John Douglas.
Blue Bell, Northgate Street
In this window it is claimed that the ghost of 'henrietta' can be seen from time to time.
In 1645 a Cavalier was lodged there with his family. The Cavalier went off to fight for the king
at the battle of Rowton Moor, near Chester on the 24th September 1645.
He did not return from the battle. And the ghost of his lover still looks out of the window
waiting for his return.
Marlborough Arms and the drunken sign writer
Near where St John Street meets Eastgate Street is located the Marlborough Arms Pub. In the 1990's I remember walking past the pub as the new sign was being written out. It was a hot day and the sign writer was having some liquid refreshment throughout the day. At the end of the day the mistake was noticed. But the sign was kept as a talking point!
18th Century Graffiti
In this window it is claimed that the ghost of 'henrietta' can be seen from time to time.
In 1645 a Cavalier was lodged there with his family. The Cavalier went off to fight for the king
at the battle of Rowton Moor, near Chester on the 24th September 1645.
He did not return from the battle. And the ghost of his lover still looks out of the window
waiting for his return.
Marlborough Arms and the drunken sign writer
Near where St John Street meets Eastgate Street is located the Marlborough Arms Pub. In the 1990's I remember walking past the pub as the new sign was being written out. It was a hot day and the sign writer was having some liquid refreshment throughout the day. At the end of the day the mistake was noticed. But the sign was kept as a talking point!
18th Century Graffiti
Near where St John Street meets Eastgate Street is located the Marlborough Arms Pub. In the 1990's I remember walking past the pub as the new sign was being written out. It was a hot day and the sign writer was having some liquid refreshment throughout the day. At the end of the day the mistake was noticed. But the sign was kept as a talking point!
18th Century Graffiti
Scratched into the first floor front window of olde Leche house, Watergate Street with a diamond ring.
Are the words 'Charming Miss Oldfield 1736'. Said to be placed there by the famous 18th century lexicographer and wit Dr Samuel Johnson.
Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745) the Irish poet and satirist is said to have remarked when staying in Chester on his way to Dublin. After inviting some clergy for dinner for which they did not turn up:
'Rotten without and mould'ring within, This place and its clergy are all near akin'.
http://www.pharmcat.demon.co.uk/cemetery/over/index.htm
Overleigh Cemetery, Chester, England
A Victorian cemetery designed by T.M.Penson in 1848. Edward Langtry, husband of the "Jersey Lily" is buried here.
It is one of my favourite cemeteries - it is only a 10 minute walk from the centre of Chester, yet it is so peaceful you can lose track of time wandering around. It is built on a small hill, so even though you are only yards away from the main road, you can hardly hear the traffic, and at the highest point you look out over the River Dee. Only this morning I found a part I haven't been to before - I had to scramble down a slope to reach it, but the beauty of the old stones amongst the wild flowers and ivy is a sight worth seeing.
Ghost re-enactment at the Blue Bell
Supernatural Links
www.chillingchester.co.uk
Information on Ley Lines
www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi217.htm
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sea.2003/page2.html
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com
Check out the www.hauntedchester.com forum
More Information on Haunted Chester from www.upia.co.uk
Haunted Chester
Rupert Matthews
Pitkin Guide 1992
ISBN 0-85372-533-0
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