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Navigation : Home > Virtual Walks > Walk the Walls > The Newgate
Chestertourist.com - Newgate. City Walls Chester
The Newgate

Chestertourist.com - The Newgate

The Newgate is large arch built into the City Walls on Pepper Street to allow two way traffic into the City Centre.

The Plumbers Arms pub has now closed down.
Chestertourist.com - The Plumbers Arms Pub Newgate Street Chester

Tomahawk Steakhouse Chester which specialises in Himalayan salt dry-aged steaks is now open Spring 2023.

Remains of the Roman south-east corner tower of the fortress.

Chestertourist.com - Remains of the Roman Deva Victrix south-east tower

The Chester Gladiator

Chestertourist.com - The Chester Gladiator. This small slate plaque was found in 1736 in Fleshmonger's Lane (Now Newgate Street) in Chester.

This small slate plaque was found in 1736 in Fleshmonger's Lane (Now Newgate Street) in Chester. Soon afterwards it disappeared, and only two cast copies of it were believed to survive. One in the society of antiquaries in London, and one here in Chester.

In 1978 Saffron Walden Museum in Essex asked the British Museum to look at a small relief of a gladiator which had been in their museum since 1836. Their accession register says it came from Herculaneum in southern Italy. But after much research the British museum was able to show that this was indeed the lost Chester gladiator.

How the plaque found its way down to Essex remains a mystery. We know that it was in the collection of a London physician, Dr Richard Mead in 1742. It later found its way into the possession of the reverend Thomas Hopkins of Linton, Cambridgeshire. Who presented it to Saffron Walden museum, but by this time its association with Chester had been long forgotten.

The stone comes from Minera in the hills of Wrexham. We believe that the Romans were mining for lead in the area, and useful pieces of slate must have been included in the shipments of lead sent to Chester.

The surviving fragment is approximately one half of a rectangular panel showing a gladiator fight between a 'Retiarius' and a 'Secutor'. The Retiarius survives complete but all that we can see of his opponent is a shield held high in the air and the outline of his sword lying on the ground. However, with the help of a little detective work we can make a guess at what stage their fight reached, and therefore what the missing figure might have looked like. The Retiarius does not appear to be fighting, and if you look closely the dagger sheath on his belt is empty. It therefore seems likely that the Secutor has been seriously wounded by the dagger. The Retiarius has won and he is awaiting the verdict from the crowd. Either to spare his opponent or to finish him off.

The Chester Gladiator is now on view in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester.

The Minor Gates of Chester

The Peppergate
The Newgate
The Newgate
The Old Shipgate
The Old Shipgate
The Kaleyard Gate
The Kaleyard Gate

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