Tag: lockdown

Lockdown loafing: an audience with a Roman goddess in a Chester park

I took my children to the local park for years.

But it took ages for me to realise there is a 2,000-year-old historical artefact near the swings.

The park is Edgar’s Field, located in the Chester district of Handbridge, and the relief carving is the Roman goddess Minerva [pictured above], cut into the former quarry face.

The shrine is believed to have been carved into the sandstone in the second century AD.

Historic England believes it is the only such site still in its original location in Europe.

During my lockdown walks, I often come for an audience with Minerva.

Gracious goddess

Minerva was the patron of art, wisdom and craftsmen, amongst others. Later in Roman history, she became the goddess of war, too.

In many ways, she is similar to the Greek goddess Athena with temples built in her honour.

The effigy is often portrayed wearing a chiton, which is an ancient Greek tunic, and a helmet.

Many images show her holding a spear and a shield, to represent her interest in war.

But she can also be found offering an olive branch to the defeated. Minerva was a gracious goddess, who had sympathy for those her armies had vanquished.

Secret site

The shrine, first built by quarrymen working on then quarry during Chester’s Roman era, may look like a hobbit house.

But the weathered rock was actually an important site of ancient worship.

The quarrymen, excavating the huge blocks of sandstone used to build Chester’s Roman wall, first carved the effigy to honour Minerva.

They made offerings and prayed for safety in the course of their gruelling, risky labour.

Today, it now forms part a leafy park on the banks of the River Dee, situated to the south of the city centre.

Sadly, Minerva looks a bit the worse for wear — the weather and vandalism have seen to that.

But you can still pick out her figure, holding a spear and wearing a helmet, an owl over her right shoulder.

The awning over the shrine is a 19th-century addition, placed there to ward off further damage.

Hidden history

Edgar’s Field dates from the Saxon period and gets its name from King Edgar, the great-grandson of Alfred the Great, who held a council in or near the field in the year 973 AD.

From here the king visited nearby St Johns Church, Chester’s original cathedral, first built in 689 AD.

Writers described a scene of Edgar being rowed up the Dee by eight princes as an act of submission — a romantic image forever associated with Chester.

Edgar’s Field was laid out as a public park by the first Duke of Westminster, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, who presented it to the City of Chester in 1892 as an act of philanthropy.

It’s an eerily quiet place right now, especially with the children’s playground closed for now for public health reasons.

But I love the way I learnt, pushing kids on swings and teaching them to ride bikes on the slope, that there’s a bone-fide Roman goddess at the end of the street.

The world changes but Minerva waits, serene and stoic, keeping watch over us all from her freeze-frame stone tomb.

 

Gazetteer

Friends of Edgar’s Field https://edgarsfield.weebly.com

Howard Williams, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Chester https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/15/chesters-minerva-shrine-to-get-a-digital-afterlife/

Lockdown loafing: gone fishing

‘Here is a noble, stone bridge over the Dee, very high and strong built’ – Daniel Dafoe on a visit to Chester circa 1724.

It’s salmon season on the River Dee.

You can tell because the herons are out in force, queueing up on the weir like a a bunch of socially distanced shoppers outside Aldi.

The salmon, meanwhile, are taunting them, turning somersaults like Eastern European gymnasts as they swim upstream.

This Springwatch-style phenomenon is an event I’ve been observing recently on my daily exercise under lockdown.

The prime viewing platform is the Old Dee Bridge. This was historically the main entrance to the city from the Welsh side of the river.

It remains my gateway to city centre, the bridge that normally leads me to an event at Storyhouse, or the rendezvous-vous for an evening ghost tour.

We know from historical documents that the bridge was built around 1387, leading from the Bridge Gate on the city walls to an outer gate on the Handbridge side of the river.

The salmon swim upstream along the 11th-century weir alongside which is an area known as the King’s Pool.

Historically anglers would have to pay a fee to fish here, reflecting the importance of the Dee for salmon fishing.

The Abbot of Chester and his monks, meanwhile, had free access to this prime fishing spot.

Salmon fishing remains an important part of life on the Dee to this day with the hub of activity centred on an unassuming brick building known as the Chester Weir fish trap.

It’s here the salmon-fishing cognoscenti control the flow of the river to measure the number of salmon making their prodigal return to Chester.

The salmon’s return ebbs and flows, much like the waters of its host river, leading to the breeding season each autumn.

But I take comfort from the fact that, while global events evolve, some things endure.

As always, the herons know best.

Lockdown loafing: a racy glimpse of the love lives of Georgian Chester

Walking the walls is one of Chester’s favourite strolls.

The 2m circuit is also one of my preferred lockdown walks, although there are currently two places with diversions — one by Morgan’s Mount and the other by Newgate Bridge.

But in the Georgian era, a promenade around the walls was considered the height of fashion with Chester offering one of the first genteel walking circuits in the country.

Indeed, a Georgian suitor would have felt quite a frisson of excitement if they took their sweetheart for an evening stroll without a chaperone.

Even more so, if she should dare to reveal a hint of ankle.

Pemberton’s Parlour [pictured above] became a centrepoint for these romantic ramblings.

The seated alcove, built in the early 18th century on the ruins of the medieval Goblin Tower, is named after the former Mayor, John Pemberton.

Pemberton was the ‘murenger’ who the collected the ‘murage’, taxes to fund the upkeep of the walls.

He even added a stone plaque [pictured below] on top of the alcove to record his importance as the man who collected the monies.

Today the walls remain a major selling point for the city with Chester rated along side Unesco-listed Conwy and Carcassone as some of the best surviving medieval city walls.

You can walk a complete circuit of the walls via this handy video from CheshireLive.

But I’m with the Georgians.

I love the way a simple stroll became an elaborate metaphor for our need to be close to the ones we love.

It’s a sentiment with strong parallels to the situation we find ourselves in today.

Why the first place I’ll head to after lockdown is Portmeirion, North Wales

Image via Portmeirion.com

This weekend would have been the 43rd Prisoner Convention at Portmeirion. But, instead we’re under lockdown. Here’s a feature I wrote for The Sun about my favourite place to return to in North Wales.

Portmeirion looks like it has stepped out of a fairytale — yet it’s right on our doorstep.

The Italian-styled village in North Wales is a major draw with its quirky buildings, woodland walks plus numerous places to sample some Welsh hospitality.

It was the backdrop to the cult sixties TV series, The Prisoner, has served as a location for film and TV shows such as Cold Feet, and has been a haven for artists and musicians from the Jazz Age to the Sixties.

It has even launched its own take on Glastonbury with Festival Number Six, named in tribute to The Prisoner, pending a relaunch in 2021.

But it’s now the star of a new ITV series, The Village, which starts this week (Tuesday 28). The programme profiles the rural idyll through the four seasons, introducing us to nine local people who work there.

“It’s surreal here under lockdown,” says Location Manager Meurig Jones, who we meet in the first episode, leading a tour of the grounds.

“When I now stand in the normally bustling piazza, I feel like I’m in the episode of The Prisoner when its star wakes up to find a ghost town,” he adds.

“There’s just birdsong — no human sound.”

All you need is love

Portmeirion is the design folly of its founder, the architect Clough Williams-Ellis [pictured above, left, with Patrick McGoohan].

Clough bought a plot of land on the Snowdonia coast in 1925 and devoted his life to building the village, determined to prove you can work with nature to create something magical.

His vision was inspired by the colourful buildings of Italy’s Portofino and, by the time he died in 1978, his magpie-like approach to recycling architectural features had taken form in eccentric buildings such as the Gothic Pavilion, Bristol Colonnade and Hercules Hall.

The free daily walking tour offers a short introduction to some of the sites, while longer tours delve deeper, exploring some of the less-visited features.

These include a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the 17th-century Town Hall ceiling. Clough bought the ceiling, which depicts the 12 Labours of Hercules, for £13 at auction and reassembled it in North Wales.

A walk through the 70-acre woodland, meanwhile, leads to the Dog Cemetery, established by Mrs Adelaide Haig, the eccentric former owner of the original manor house on site who used to read The Bible to her beloved pets.

Book ahead for one of the specialist themed-tour options, including filming locations from The Prisoner, or places associated with The Beatles, who were frequent visitors and Prisoner fans.

The family of Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, had the self-catering cottage Gate House on a short-term lease and brought the band to Portmeirion to savour the tranquillity away from the screaming fans.

George Harrison, in particular, loved the spiritual feel of the place and later returned to celebrate his 50th birthday in the village in 1993.

Let’s spend the night together

Portmeirion is normally busy by day with tour groups but, for me, the village really comes into its own at night with its brightly coloured buildings, hidden-gem statues and quirky architectural flourishes shrouded in moonlight.

You can stay overnight at the fine-dining Hotel Portmeirion, or the more relaxed Castell Deudraeth, for exclusive after-hours access to the village.

For me, however, the best way to soak up the atmosphere is by staying in one of the 13 cwtchy (that’s Welsh for cosy) self-catering cottages within the grounds of the village. All staying guests have use of the heated outdoor swimming pool and have access to The Mermaid Spa.

Amongst the cottages, Fountain is where the author Noel Coward wrote the comic play Blithe Spirit over five days in 1941.

White Horses, located along the headland from Hotel Portmeirion by the camera obscura, is where the actor Patrick McGoohan, who stared in and directed The Prisoner, stayed while filming the TV series.

“I’ve worked here since 2011 but I’m still learning about the place,” laughs Meurig. “There are so many interesting nooks and crannies to discover.”

“But, most of all, I like to sit and absorb the spirit of the place. Clough always wanted Portmeirion to be a living, breathing space, not a museum, to inspire other people.”

I’ll be back to visit Portmeirion as soon as it’s safe to do so and am already looking forward to joining the celebrations for its centenary in 2026.

But, meanwhile, I’ll be staying home and tuning in to savour my favourite little bit of Italy in North Wales on TV.

After all, everyone loves a fairytale ending.

More: Portmeirion: The Prisoner.

Read the story at The Sun Travel.