CHESTER - APRIL 2025
Chester has long been on Mr F's list of places he really wanted to visit and due to a huge change of plans, we were finally making our visit. Our initial plan over a year ago was to have an extended holiday - 7 weeks - which Mrs F was granted with her work and due to Easter being at the end of April and the two May bank holidays, we wouldn't need to use as many days to book off. Mr F's work however were a lot less accommodating only only granted him 3 weeks. We initially planned to walk the West Highlight Way and then climb Ben Nevis and make our way around Scotland, heading up to the Isle of Skye. However, Mr F waited to ask if he could have another week as we wouldn't have enough time to do all of this in just 3 weeks..the answer was still no! By the tie it came to looking and booking our trip to do the West Highland Way and then onto Ben Nevis, the prices were astronomical; just to get the train from East Anglia to Glasgow, stay in B&B's along the route and having to stay in the same place twice on two occasions before the next stay became available, it worked out to be just over £1,400! Without supplies and all food for the trip on top of that, we were looking at over £2,000 which is a lot of money. As Mr F put it, we could have a weeks holiday in Egypt for that!
With very heavy hearts, out amazing 7 week holiday that was reduced to just 3 weeks ended up being reduced even more to just 2 weeks 😞 We did plan to make the most of the 2 weeks by first heading to see Mrs F's Dad near Blackburn and spend a couple of days with him, having 1 day to go fishing. We left at 8am on Easter Monday (bit risky travelling on a bank holiday!) but door to door we did it without any trouble in 4 and half hours. The days fishing was really lovely and the weather was really lovely...
Mrs F isn't a fan of fishing, thinking it's quite a cruel sport but Mrs F's Dad to fish for his county and Mr F is a keen fisherman; together they caught common carp, millions of roach and a barbel. Mrs F caught a perch...a modest one!
CHESTER DAY 1: EXPLORING THE CITY
We left Mrs F's Dad on the Wednesday morning at 9:50am after one of Mr F's Dad's epic bacon and mushroom rolls. It only took us 1 and 20 minutes to arrive at our B&B in Chester, Sycamore House which was perfect timing to check in after 11am and make the most of being there on our first day. It was just a 10 minute walk from the town centre and very close to the River Dee and an area called The Groves. Our B&B host said there was a restaurant here called Hickory's Smokehouse but said they serve too much meat...is there such a thing?!
The B&B only had 3 rooms and was an old converted Georgian house and were the only ones staying that night. It was quite dated with the décor being stuck in the 80's with the style of furniture and bathroom which had carpet! When chatting to the owner he said he fitted all of the bathrooms 30 years ago...an update is needed me thinks! The only downside was the bathroom had clear windows rather than frosted (I imagine to the age of the house) at the side of the house by the side street view, so anyone could look straight in! They remedied this by putting curtains up. Besides that, the bed was comfortable and had all the facilities we needed, towels, tea and coffee (with decaff tea, very considerate!) We had UHT milk but he did offer to put a pint of fresh milk in the little fridge just outside in the passageway, but we were content with what we had. n top of the little fringe was a free selection of toiletries in case anyone forgot them which was a really nice little touch and very considerate...
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| Our Room |
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| Steps Down Into The Bathroom |
We wasted no time at all heading out once we unloaded the car. Our host told us where to go to walk into town, literally the road opposite the B&B which lead directly to Queen's Park Bridge over the River Dee and into town. We had already known about the Hop On Hop Off bus and Mrs F was really quite keen to do it; she had done the Hop On Hop Off bus when on city breaks with her Mum in both Edinburgh and Stratford Upon Avon and they were a great way to get around and explore various parts of the city we wouldn't have done normally and go back to points of interest we saw along the way. You also get a running commentary of information as you go so is a tour in itself and Mrs F always really liked them. They're also a really good way to get around the city as you can do exactly what it says, Hop On and Hop Off as many times as you like for 24 hours. It was really handy that one of the stops was by the river called The Groves, stop number 6. There was a bus there so we asked the driver how much a ticket was and he told us that a 24hour ticket along with the river tour was £35 pounds, which cheaper than anticipated, so was very likely we were going to do that the next day and be full on tourists! From there we walked up a little cobbled road next to St John The Baptist Church, we were then the Chester Roman Amphitheatre. From there we walked up another road where there were quite a few little restaurants and into the main centre itself. One thing we really like about Chester is there are very little main chains of
well known businesses such as Starbucks and Costa, in fact we don't recall seeing any such brands, apart form the customary Tesco express, of course! The town centre was lovely, very olde worlde look with a lot of the buildings being Tudor style with the famous
Eastgate Clock on the Eastgate of the city walls. It's a popular landmark and is said to be the second most photographed clock in the UK after Big Ben. The clock was installed in 1899 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee...
The Cathedral was stunning inside with very impressive design and architecture. There were tealight statins dotted around giving people the option to light one for the Pope who had recently passed away, a chapel at the back where they held communion at 12:30 as well as other little quite places and various rooms around the Cathedral. The walkway leading around the garden in the middle was really lovely with intricate stained glass windows was interesting. Along the walls in the main area of the church where the congregation would sit was various characters of the bible which were depicted in artform with some scripture to go with them...
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| Walking Around the cathedral From the outside |
As we made our way back to the town centre by the town hall, where the entrance to the Cathedral was directly opposite, there were a load of school children who were putting on a performance for St George's Day. We didn't realise it was St George's Day so Mr F asked if there will be another performance the next day as we had just missed it, so she replied in a slight sarcastic manner that it was only St George's Day today! We headed into the visitor information centre to see if there was anything we could do, take part in, free walking tours etc....alas, we had to pay for everything tourist related! We were hoping to join a free walking tour as we did in Bath and York and Mrs F had seen online that there is supposed to be a free walking tour at 1pm going from the Town Hall, but it was a review from 5 years ago so not sure if it was still running. There was one that was sadly in Spanish and our trusty Strawberry Tours who we had the free walking tours with before weren't running one in Chester, weirdly. We did however buy our Hop On Hop Off bus tickets and could use them at any point, which is when the 24 hours begins, with your first Hop On 🙂🚌 We also bought a map of Chester for £1.50.
Tickets purchased, we headed for the Cathedral. It's worth mentioning at this point that the weather was really lovely, sunny with a few clouds around but warm. This was a huge blessing as it didn't look that great with a forecast of a few showers whilst in Chester, but it stayed bright and sunny our entire time there 😊
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| St George's Day Celebrations Complete With a Dragon! |
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| Impressive Wooden Carvery Gifts in the Cathedral Gift Shop |
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| Beautiful Walkways Around the Garden |
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| The Back of the Cathedral |
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| Looking Towards the Front of the Alter |
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| Extremely Impressive Lego Model of the Cathedral |
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| Wall Art of Bible Characters |
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| Organ Pipes |
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| The Very Front of the Alter By The Choir Seats |
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A Disused Room Where monks Used to Pray
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| Beautiful Garden in the Centre of the Cathedral |
The gardens had lots of ornaments dotted around of various animals and creatures that lit up at night to create a little light show, but we didn't go back to see it in it's full lit up state...
Just before leaving, Mr F bought tickets for the tower tour at 11am the next morning, which e had already seen as a must do online. It was then time to feed Mrs F! We wondered around for quite a while looking for somewhere inspirational with something that invited us both and for a good price! Eating out these days is mega expensive and since we hardly do eat out, the increase in price has gone up in quite bit for us rather then it being a gradual hit if we eat out frequently. However we were here to embrace it all and just suck it up buttercup (As Mr F often says!)
We walked down a street that was full of restaurants and cafe's, all independent and finally decided on the Jaunty Goat! Mrs F was quite taken by the waffles with coconut yoghurt, honey and berry compote and Mr F had the wild mushrooms on sourdough toast and they were both delicious 😋We had to sit outside as it was packed inside with people coming and going so obviously very popular. We even heard someone say as she went inside to her friends that it's often full. It looked like a health based menu and Mrs F had some kind of fruity tea that was quite nice, apart from having the sun glare in our faces and was bouncing off the tables and creating quite a glare but still nice to sit outside.
There was a French tour group that came by stopped to focus on and talk about a section of the building directly opposite us that we later learned on our bus tour that these are Three Old Arches that had been there since the 13th Century another impressive feature of Chester! Another feature of Chester which is quite unique are the Chester Rows, which are basically rows of shops above shops! The street had access to shops on the ground level, however you could also go up stairs to access more shops that were build on a balcony area directly above the ground level shops.
We also came across what looked like a stone mason workshop with students from Chester University making some grand sculptures. It was quite amazing what we came across and discovered along the wall; a Persian Blue and Ragdoll cat that were both allowed to roam, along with another gorgeous tabby. The Ragdoll had a tag on her collar but if this were anywhere else she'd had been taken, in the sad world we live in!
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| View of the High Street From Eastgate Clock |
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| Lovely Roman Gardens On Our Way Round |
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| Compacted Houses and Back yards! |
(Warning, lots of cat photos coming up!)
We eventually made our way around to The Groves where there is a really lovely bridge going over the River Dee (not the one we take from the B&B) There are sections of the walk along the wall where the wall disappears and you regain access further along, but there are maps to show this. Our first break from the wall was when we walked past Chester Racecourse. We had to cross over the bridge as seen in the photo below, which lead us directly into the grounds themselves to walk alongside the track briefly and then steps to the wall were a little further along. We learned on our Hop On Hop Off bus tour the next day that Chester is the oldest Racecourse in the world, being established in 1539...wow!
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| Agricola Tower and Castle |
Mr F really liked the design of this bridge which is right next to the Racetrack called Grosvenor Bridge...
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| The Racecourse |
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| Grosvenor Bridge From The Racetrack Side |
Once we were back on the wall we stayed on until we reached Eastgate Clock again. We came across this enclosed seating area - there was some information about this but sadly didn't get a phot and can't remember! We sat inside here for a little while to give our feet a break and promptly left our £1.50 map behind! 😭
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| More Views of Houses |
King Charles Tower, also known as Phoenix or Newton Tower is a Grade 1 listed building. The structure probably originated in the 13th century. During the later part of the 16th century the tower was leased to two city guilds, the Painters and Stationers, and the Barbers and Chandlers, who sublet it to other guilds. By 1612 the fabric of the tower was in a poor condition and the lead had been lost from its roof. It was restored by the two guilds and above the door they placed a plaque containing the date 1613 and a carving of a phoenix, the emblem of the Painters. In the Civic War, during the Siege of Chester in 1645, the tower had a gun in each storey, and it was damaged in the conflict. A plaque on the tower states that King Charles I stood on the tower on 24 September 1645 as he watched his soldiers being defeated at the Battle of Rowton Heath. The historian Simon Ward has expressed doubts about this and has suggested that the king may have stood instead on a tower of Chester Cathedral, which he considers is confirmed by evidence that a captain standing beside him was killed by a stray shot.
The guilds resumed possession of the tower in 1658, and repaired it. They ceased possession by about 1773, after which the city carried out repairs. However, by 1838, the tower was described as being in a dilapidated condition. By this time, the city was promoting it as a tourist attraction because of its reputed connection with King Charles. In the late 1850s, the lower chamber was being used by a print-seller, and later in the century the tower was made a private museum.
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| King Charles Tower |
We eventually made our way around to the Cathedral and main high road where we stopped off at the Bear and Billet, which we found out on our bus tour that it was where John Lennon's Grandmother was born. There was a special offer on pints of cider so instead of half pints, we went large and had cider shandy's and a packet of crisps (for the daylight robbery price of £1.50!) and started to make our way back to the B&B to have a little chill and freshen up before heading to Hickory's Smokehouse for apparently too much meat!
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| Mrs F Wasn't Quite Ready!! 😅 |
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| That's Better! |
Our first impressions of Chester were great! A really lovely town with so much history with so many points of interest and impressive historic buildings, we were very much looking forward to our tourist day the next day starting with our Hop On Hop Off bus and river tour 🙂But first, dinner!
We headed out around 6:30 and it was still really light given that it was in the height of Spring, so the walk - even though only 10 minutes - was still a pleasant one over the bridge to the restaurant literally on the other side by the river. We didn't have a table booked but we managed to get the stalls and bar right by meat kitchen, where all the deliciousness happens! We were say right by the brisket section and we almost salivating at the sight of it being sliced...
It was a very authentic Texan experience (the title of the review we gave it on Trip Advisor
here) They had the menu as a newspaper which was quite unique and different. The décor was very Southern American with a bar in one area and vast areas of restaurant areas to choose from, the place was huge. We were really quite happy where we were as we could see all that goes on behind the scenes; the meat kitchen the pass with the kitchen out the back for all other prep work and dishes and staff all dressed in red chequered shirts, although some of the girls had denim skirts way too short!! We had a young lad serve us all night we found out his name was Toby; a sweet boy and kept coming up to us to chat brief little chats and talked to us about him studying at Chester University in Zoology and his hopes and dreams for the future. Mrs F ordered a Grape Soda - very American - but it was awful! She stuck to drinking the free bottle of water than was on our table whilst Mr F ordered a beer. They gave everyone a free little bag of salty popcorn when you sit at your table with the brand name on the bags which was a nice little touch, although most likely a ploy to get you to buy more drinks as you eat the salty popcorn. Mrs F ordered the Memphis style half rack of ribs in Bourbon sauce (a choice of BBQ, Bourbon or maple) which came with skin on chips and pickled slaw. The rubs themselves were divine, the meat literally fell off the bone and by the time Mrs F was done with them, even a vulture would have been proud at the clean bones! The slaw however wasn't overly nice so that got left, as bit too tangy. Mr F had the rather large and impressive Go Big Or Go Home burger; three toasted buns, two prime-beef patties, a Southern friend chicken fillet, streaky bacon, magic-dusted pork collar, a hash brown & three slices of American style cheese. Plus lettuce, pickled red onions, pickles & Hickory's burger sauce....and he ate the lot!! Mrs F shock his hand afterwards when his plate was clear, like he'd just conquered a man vs food eating challenge but alas, there was no hall of fame for his photo, just the glory and gluttony of eating it all!
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| Newspaper Style Menus |
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| Mr F's Go Big Or Go Home Burger! |
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| Mightily Impressive! |
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| Mrs F's Memphis Ribs 😋 |
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| Sauces on The Table |
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| Looking Very Pleased With His Accomplishment |
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| So Was Mrs F!! |
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| Plenty Deserts on Offer! |
As we walked back along the river we saw a huge tall heron, which looked like a statue at first but then it started walking, so Mrs F managed to get a short video and photo before he disappeared. As we walked up the ramp towards the bridge leading to our B&B, we could here music. When we were in the pub earlier we were Googling to see if there were any pubs with live bands and Mrs F even called her colleague who regularly visited Chester for a night out, in fact was in Chester for a night out that week, to ask if he knew of anywhere that had live music, but he didn't, sadly. So e decided to follow the sound of the music and see where it was coming from. We didn't manage to find it and Mr F made a joke when we passed an Irish pub that imagine it was an Irish jig band...and behold, we found a pub with an Irish jig band!! It wasn't coming from the Irish pub but a little further down the road called The Cross Keys - as we passed to head back towards the river we heard music so we went in to see and it was a full on 15 piece Irish band with all kinds of instruments with people turning up and joining like it was a free for all! There was tiny little wooden plaque with their name but can't remember what they were called. It was quite an assault on the senses after a while as, although they clearly knew what they were playing, it almost sounded like one big Irish noise because there were so many instruments; Irish drums, flute, guitar, Irish whistle, violins, piano-accordion, Irish accordions and other instruments we've never seen before! We sat at the bar and had a drink whilst they played just short of an hour (that's all our ears could take!)before making our way to the river opposite the Bear and Billet pub and walked back towards The Groves and the B&B. All in all, it was a really lovely first day in Chester, if not a very tiring one with all the walking!
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| The Rather Large Heron |
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| The Irish Band |
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| Mr F Having a Good Time |
On our way home we dived into a Tesco Express so Mr F could buy a razor and planned to have a clean shave, which he hadn't done in years! As his beard was already getting our of control and to not risk looking like Grizzly Adams, Mr F had a clean shave when we got back to the B&B! He used the free shaving foam as provided by the B&B and considering they were only BIC razors and he had a lot of growth to tackle, he did a gran job. Mrs F couldn't quite get used to seeing him clean shaven again and eve more weird having a kiss!
DAY 2: HOP ON HOP OFF BUS TOUR & RIVER BOAT
We were up and ready for breakfast for 8am, as our Hop On Hop Off bus from The Groves left at 9:45, we wanted to give ourselves enough time. There was cereal and homemade jams on offer (really lovely) and after our fruit and yoghurt, Mrs F had a cooked breakfast and was struggling with the meat after last nights carnivore dinner! The black pudding was the best we'd eaten, it tasted like it had breadcrumbs or something, it was delicious 😋Mr F just had bacon and scrambled eggs with toast and the bacon as as thick as gammon! The lady gave us a map of Chester which was handy since we left ours where we sat by the wall. We headed out and took a little stroll, heading back onto the wall to see if the cats were there, but they weren't, so we walked around the Roman Gardens by The Groves where there as an old bath house, which was mostly still intact. We also played a little game of 'who can pose the best statue' and sent them to our nieces who each voted for ach of us...however one of them got her friends involved her made Mr F the winner!...what do you think??
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| Hickory's |
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| The River Dee |
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| Not Sure What Church This Is |
We learned so much on the tour, as you'd expect. We learned that the red bricked zig-zag pattern in houses on the other side of town we 'Ws' to mark a higher rank in society in links with Westminster. John Douglas was architect and responsible for majority of the chimney's you see in Chester, and there are quite a lot! Chester Racecourse is the oldest in the world still operating, there is a cocoa house that Cadbury and other chocolate makers signed up to create an incentive to get people high and happy on cocoa rather than alcohol (sign me up to that!) Stanley Palace on Watergate Street is a grade II listed building in the National Heritage in 1591 for Sir Peter Warburton (no idea if linked to the bread!) and has since been apartments, a boys school and museum. A shop in the highroad had a higher level to avoid paying tax for shops that came out onto the pavement, but got around it by building above the payment so people could still get by...clever! The main bus station has a garden area on the roof - So much information to remember but it was such a lovely bus ride and a great way to explore the city, we really enjoyed it 😊🚌
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| Eastgate Clock |
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| The Crafty Tax Evading Shop Idea! |
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| Mr F Was Enjoying It, Promise! |
The bus was right on schedule and we we back at The Groves by 10:45 and ready for our river tour, which was included in the price of the bus ticket. The river tour was however just one trip, unlike the bus that you could use for 24 hours from the time of our first hop on 😊
It was quite popular for a Thursday morning - we took the seats at the back. The wooden benches for the seats weren't bolted down, weirdly but we weren't about to go off at speed on choppy water so we were fine! The tour itself was quite underwhelming; it was good to see the vast houses by the river which all had a huge slopping back garden, some needing mor work than others and some that looked like they had Kevin McCloud renovate them with some work underway. We literally travelled up the river away from the main town for 15 minutes, turned around and came back! We didn't even get a running commentary of any history or interesting facts; the guys was talking in a very monotone voice about the birds and their preservation but it wasn't very clear what he was saying. It was pleasant enough but not very exciting!
A few photos of the homes by the river...
By the time we got back to The Groves, the weather had got warmer which was good as Mrs F was contemplating nipping back to the B&B for a jumper. Whilst we were on the boat, a young man who had special needs was with his carer and tried to ask a little girl who was sat in front of us with her family what her name was in sign language. Mrs F felt quite sorry for him and so wanted to try to say hello using her BSL skills; turns out he was very non-communicative and only used very basic makaton, but it was good to try to include him 💗
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| The Buskers |
We made our way back into town and came across a couple of buskers who really wouldn't sound out of place singing classically in the Royal Albert Hall, they had amazing voices with incredible harmonies, a really lovely duo, so we stopped up on some steps just above them and listened for a while. There was an organ recital in the Cathedral at 1:10pm until 2pm which we planned to go and listen to. We first wanted to see if the free walking tour that Mrs F saw on trip Advisor from 2023 was still running, meeting at 1pm by the sculpture outside the Town Hall. We were on the lookout for a man in a yellow t-shirt with an umbrella and were the only ones sat by the sculpture until a little after 1pm after realising the tour wasn't happening. As the Cathedral was directly opposite the Town Hall, we had time to head over and make it for the organ recital. Neither of us had heard a full organ played in all it's glory before and was lovely to hear as I'm sure organs in full working order and in tune and the people who play them are far and few...
A bronze statue of Janya the baby elephant opposite the Town Hall. It was a gift from Chester Zoo to celebrate the birth of Janya born in 2010. Janya means "Life" in Hindi.
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| Heading Into The Organ Recital |
After the recital had finished, we headed back to listen to the boys who sang only a couple of more songs before moving to a location further down the highroad, as other buskers had that spot booked for 2pm. It must be a very popular busking spot where you have to book! We went in search of somewhere to eat and found an independent café where we had tea, coffee, cake and flapjack. As we sat by the window enjoying it, we noticed there was an indoor market which we ventured into afterwards and discovered there were lots of food and vender stalls, much like Borough Market. Sadly no photos were taken, but did get a photo of this plaque which explains the commemoration of the market build...
As we were in full blown tourist mode and had our bus tickets still, we decided to jump back on (our driving recognised us!) and head to the Grosvenor Museum. We forgot to press the bell for the stop right outside and so had to wait until it came back around nearby. Mrs F was getting slightly panicked that we need to press the bell fairly soon or we could end up missing our stop again, whilst Mr F on the other hand was mocking Mrs F for worrying so much, saying (in a mocking tone!) it goes back around to stop 8 (the museum) and shouldn't be so desperate to press the bell....his mockery was not helping! Anyway, we got off just around the corner and Mr F was right, the bus did indeed come back around to the Museum and the driver even gave us a wave as he drove by!! As we went into the Museum, we were met with a very loud school trip off loud young children running around and generally being, well, loud! We tried to have a look around on the bottom floor but the museum had arranged for the kids to take part in some kind of roman dress up with a guy shouting loudly to explain what needs to happen, so we decided to leave! The receptionist asked if it was too noisy as we walked out and apologised for once we said yes, but we did say we would be back later.
Instead, we walked towards Grosvenor Park where we walked around St John The Baptist Church grounds for a while before jumping back on the bus to the Museum that closed at 5pm and so wanted to allow enough time to have a mooch about...
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| St John The Baptist Church Grounds |
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| In The Museum |
The Museum was really quite interesting with various Roman artifacts, although the cabinet with a couple of skeletons was slightly harrowing. Unbeknown to us, there was a section at the back of the Museum past the gift shop called Period Houses in History (or something to that nature!) and it was on 3 floors of how the house would have looked back in the day, each room set up for it's intent complete with dummies...the bathroom dummy was particularly laughable! The café set in the 1940s was really lovely and you could actually order tea and food in there..
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| 1940s Café |
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| This Was Rather Funny! |
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| Different Kind of Recorders |
| Fashion Through The Years - Particularly Liked Reliving The 90s Shell Suit! |
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We still had most of the next day to explore; we were off to Wales the next day and wasn't allowed to get into our booked cottage until 5pm, explicitly! So we planned to leave Chester around 3pm, getting us to Capel Curig around 5pm, so had near enough a whole day to discover more. On our way back to the B&B we stopped off once again at the Bear & Billet pub for another of their special deals on ciders. Mrs F vowed that she was going to go off grid for the entire 2 weeks off, not checking emails or using social media, but did have one quick glance at emails and saw a free Treasure Trail offer up for grabs, so we decided to do once in Chester the next day since we had enough. There were 4 to chose from depending on what areas you wanted to explore, so we picked the Northgate & Canal. We headed back to the B&B to freshen up for another heavy loaded meat feast at Hickory's. As we didn't have a table booked, we were assured when trying to book the night before that we could wait in the bar and the stall tables we had the night before would become available around 7pm. We waited in the bar and the Deputy Manager kept us informed as to when our table will become available and even asked the barman to put our drinks on his tab! Mrs F played it safe with a non alcoholic cocktail called Life's a Peach and it was much improved in the disgusting grape soda the night before. When we were eventually shown to our table by the manager himself (called Chris) we were met with a complimentary sample of brisket which was utterly divine, along with the customary popcorn.
After scanning the menu, Mr F already had his eye on the Thursday special which was the Barbeque Blowout: Memphis style baby back ribs, southern fried chicken, BBQ glazed chicken wings, hand pulled pork, BBQ pit beans & Hickory's wood smoked pork jalapeno & cheese sausage, served with skin-on fried and slaw! Mrs F opted for the 14 hour smoked pulled pork with the barbeque pit beans and it was honestly one of most memorable dishes eaten and we have eaten all over the world! This is actually something that Mrs F told Chris who was really quite attentive throughout the night, checking in our how we were enjoying our meals and making us feel quite special, we think largely due to the fact that Mrs F mentioned that she has a travel blog with over 10,000 hits and planned to write about Hickory's. The attentiveness revved up after that!! Once we had finished our meals, Chris asked if we wanted to see the smokers out the back, which we took him up on his offer; as we made our way around the back via the entrance, Mr F said allowed that mirrored Mrs F general wonderment "What is happening?!" It was like we were royalty! Chris took us to see the smokers which had pork deliciously smoking for the next nights meal and told us the story of how they came directly from America, showing us the photo of them coming off the cargo ship in containers and how they regularly go to America to make sure they are offering the best and authentic dishes with the best cut and how there was a mix up in translation as to what cut a collar was. Then he showed us the big bucket of 'Magic Dust' that they use for the meat and said he can give us some to take away (which he never did!) Then he introduced us to one of the main chefs...Mrs F took pictures and Chris took it upon himself to stand proudly next to one of the smokers.
Once we were back into the restaurant, he then called over his head chef 'Pickle' who looked just as confused as we did as to why he was being introduced to us 😆 He spoke about the passion he has working thee and we said that we had eaten all over the world and Hickory's really does stand out as being right up there. We made it back to our table after the grand tour and introductions and Mrs F had her heart set on the Freakshakes, specifically the Cookie Monster one. As we were leaving, Chris personally saw us out and gave us both hugs like we were long standing friends!😅 We walked back to our B&B buzzing at the very odd but very special, special treatment we'd just experienced for reasons we had no idea why, other than the mention of a popular travel blog...but he had already bought us drinks and gave us a sample of brisket before that was mentioned. Maybe he was just simply delivering a top notch hospitable service...whatever the reasons, we really enjoyed ourselves and made an exceptional memory 😊
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| Drinks In The Bar |
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| Life's A Peach |
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| Authentic Texan décor |
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| Complimentary Brisket |
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| Mr F's Barbeque |
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| Mrs Fs Incredible Pulled Pork & BBQ Pit Beans |
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| Another Proud Moment |
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| The Smokers Out Back |
Succulent Meat Just Roasting Away...😋
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| Chris Standing Proud By The Smokers |
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| Cookie Monster! |
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| Our New Best friend! 😅 |
DAY 3: TREASURE TRAIL
CATHEDRAL TOWER TOUR
OFF TO WALES
As mentioned, we strictly wasn't allowed in our cottage until after 5, but that was fine as that gave us more time in Chester. We had by now explored all of what we could without now paying for thing, such as our Cathedral tower tour which was £14 each at 11am. We were up for breakfast around the same time; Mrs F had the French toast and maple syrup which was really lovely and Mr F had the same as yesterday. We were going to ask if we could leave the car in the drive, but after a little general chat with the owner and we spoke about our plans for the day and rest of the week in Wales and not being able to get in until 5pm, he offered for us to leave the car, which was great and kind of him. After having showers, we loaded the car up and left the room spotless as we always do and headed to the start of our Treasure Trail outside the Town Hall, which took us literally up to the time we needed to get to the start of our tour at 11am and we always love a treasure trail, so glad Mrs F spotted this to do.
The tour had about 10 people including us two and was packed with information by a young lad who really did know his stuff (you'd like to think so being a tour guide!) but he was great in how he delivered the information and engaged the group, he wasn't at all boring and enthusiastic about what he was saying. Sadly there too much information to jot down everything but what we do remember will be below next to the relevant picture. We started by heading through a small narrow doorway which led up a very narrow, tight staircase that has 216 steps in total. They do check if everyone is ok with heights and confined spaces beforehand; Mrs F isn't a fan of confined spaces at all and slightly apprehensive but it was fine, just a very tight spiral staircase. The tour guide (can't remember his name!) told us that the monks would come up the staircase every night to their beds and was made with horse hair in the mortar, which you can see!
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| The Town Hall |
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| Nice Waterway on Our Treasure Trail |
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| Cathedral Ceiling with Gold Crests |
This is the original outside wall built in 1062 before the Cathedral was extended...
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| The Narrow Staircase |
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| The Horse Hair in the Mortar! |
Once we were at the first level just above the organ, we could see the first level roof with the gold crests and get a good view of the organ pipes. The walkway in the balcony area where we stopped was over 1000 years old but assured it was 'relatively' safe!
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| Organ Pipes |
From the balcony, we headed up more stairs that were even more narrow that the first set which led us to the top level before going as far as the roof and eventually, the very top of the tower outside. The tour guide told us that there used to be a gas chandelier hanging from this ceiling which had caught fire, so they decided to remove it...who wouldn't it! There was the gas pipe still coming out of the celling which you could see and gargoyles on each corner of the supporting beams - the cross section of the beams were entirely self supporting, but again, apparently safe! It was said that the stone masons who carved them with horrible looking faces, was upset with the monks and was supposed to be a representation of the monks who lived there, so the tour guide advised not to upset a stone mason in case he did the same to you! 😄
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| Heading Up The Very Narrow Staircase |
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| The Impressive Supporting Beams |
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| Organ Pipes |
Once we reached the top, we were in the room just below the bell tower which used to have 10 bells that weighed a huge amount of tonnes that the tower couldn't support, so in 1969, eight of the bells were removed, recast and hung in a new tower. Two of the bells remained but not in use. The were devices in the room which showed how the clocks mechanics and bell chimes worked and in the middle of the room was a glass opening to where the chandelier hung, which you could look down into and see the pipe. From here, we headed up some very modern stairs to where the bells were and out through a door to the top of the tower outside and see Chester in a beautiful clear 360 view. On a clear day, such as today, you could even see as far as Liverpool Cathedral, which we could see but very faint looking in the distance and definitely needed good eyesight! There were boards in all 4 views around the tower to show what you could see looking out from that angle...
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| The Machine Showing How a Clock Works |
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| A Giant Music Box To Show How The Chimes Work |
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| We Were First In The Room |
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| The Bell Tower |
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| One of The Remaining Bells |
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| The Other Bell |
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| Where All The Bells Used To Sit and Chime |
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| Information About The Fire Caused By The Gas Chandelier |
On our way out of the mechanics room and out to the outside of the tower, we were encouraged to touch a stone that was one of the original stones with an initial carved in, most likely by the stone mason, just to be able to stand and touch the same stone in the same spot as someone did all those years ago...
Out on the top of the tower, looking down and the Cathedral congregation area...
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| Impressive Gargoyles |
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| Churchyard Below |
We were outside for about 10 minutes before heading back in. As we the last ones of the group to head back inside, we were instructed to ensure the door was shut and bolted to stop pigeons from flying in and he called back to make sure Mr F had done it! Just inside the door, the spiral stairs continued beyond the door just a little further but then stopped going nowhere after that...for some reason! Mr F also spotted a window that was missing a small glass pane that was missing...
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| The Missing Glass Pane |
Our last stop on the tour was the balconies just above the main section of the church. He told us that a monk would stand in these small walkways, each one behind a secluded area and sing hymns using just their voices to give the appearance of a Heavenly orchestra - I bet that must have been something to hear! The tour guide also pointed out that when they put the metal bars across the stained glass window, one of the them went right across the baby Jesus' face, so the bar had to be bend so that it ran across over His head, which looked like a halo in itself! From here, we were lead through an area, much like the loft in the eaves of the church where stone mason apprentices would practice carving their designs in the stones, which are still there and can see their improvement as you walk further along...
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| Looking Down From The Balcony Area |
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| Beautiful Architecture and Design |
Incredible ceiling with designs of biblical prophets...  |
| Amazing View Looking Down From The Front |
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| Can You See The Bent Bar Above Jesus' Head?? |
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| Small Area Where The Stone Masons Practiced |
Just before we reached the end of the tour and on ground level again, just by the organ was a picture that we're sure so often gets overlooked, as it was only small and set into the wall. But it turns out that the entire picture was made form cobweb and the only one in the UK, how impressive and incredibly time consuming with patience is that!!
Didn't see this wooden carved Nativity set when we were here on our first day...
Whilst we were stood on the balcony looking down towards the back of the church with the choir pews nearest us, we learned that the carvings in the pews are all different and is one of what someone thought and elephant looked like, which looked to have an elephants head on a horses body! This was obviously before Janya came to town! 😄
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| Depicted Elephant Carving! |
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| Famous St Michael Slaying the Devil |
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| Pews With Various Different Carvings |
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| Our Nieces Names in the Church Gift Ship |
Once we had finished with the tour it was time for lunch, so we headed back to the café just outside the indoor market where we went the day before. Mrs F had a steak salad and Mr F had a coffee. Mrs F had some funky ginger drink, was very strong. Since all we had left to do now was venture through Grosvenor Park and St John The Baptist Church which was right next to the church, we made that our final destination. We were tempted to go on the big wheel in the park and really complete our tourist visit to Chester, but it was £8 per person and we had just had high views of Chester from the highest point, so we passed as we walked on by. The park was really lovely and can imagine it looking stunning in the height of summer with all the flowers and rose bushes, with lots of different routes to take and benches to rest and while and enjoy your surroundings. As we neared the other end of the park where the church is, we came across an excavation in action after talking to the man who was sifting through the mound of earth the digger was piling on, it turned out to be an area they dig up frequently for the university students to practice their field work on - personally we felt it was quite a extreme to unearth the huge area unnecessarily just so students could practice juts to cover it all up again and ruin the park, why not go along to a real dig?? Anyhow, he showed us some things he had found in a little pot, including a couple of lead bullets from muskets, designed to kill you from lead poisoning if the bullet didn't do the job...grim!
We headed into the church only to be met by yet another school trip!🤦We didn't hand around too long, Mrs F had an older man approach her as she was looking at the stained glass window at the front to explain that it was to depict Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana. Mrs F also had an interesting conversation about the nature of God, but we'll leave that one if the page!
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| Richard Grosvenor, Second Marquess of Westminster |
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| Inside St John The Baptist Church |
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| School Trip! |
As the church was literally right by The Groves and our way back to the B&B to set off for Wales, we stopped first for an ice cream 🍦Mr F had been eyeing up the ice creams from this place each time we walked by, particularly the pistachio once, so it was a pistachio ice cream with a flake for Mr F and a chocolate cookie dough one for Mrs F. We sat by the river, as do many others just enjoying the view and the moment, contemplating our amazing 3 days in Chester and being thankful...💗
But our adventures are far from over, Wales, here we come!! 🌄
VERDICT OF CHESTER, APRIL 2025
Mr F:
Mrs F: It has been a long and overdue want of Mr F's to come to Chester and so glad we finally got to do it and with such great weather we were truly blessed with. The forecast wasn't set very fair, so it was really great to come and enjoy it without the downside of poor weather. I really loved the history of Chester and all the amazing buildings that have survived and been preserved through the years. We did look to see if there were any National Trust places we could visit as we are members, but there weren't any, I expect with much of the history belonging to the city. I really loved our Hop On Hop Off bus that we used 3 times and the information it gave as we travelled to placed we wouldn't have doe otherwise was really interesting, such as the Racecourse being the oldest in the world! I really liked the town centre that had mostly independent shops, which was great to support local businesses more than the bigger brands, which added to the character and attraction of the city. It reminded me of York and Bath but it had a similar Roman history to it (see 2014 December entry for Bath) Everything we did and the things we saw was so memorable, even the two lads busking was really great to just stop and appreciate. Then of course there was our VIP treatment at Hickory's for reasons we will never know, but nonetheless, we will always remember and treasure. There is nothing more than I love than to come to somewhere new and explore it with Mr F, who enjoys, appreciates and loves the same things; we started each day reading the Psalms and just had such a lovely time together, something we don't do often enough but always love it when we do. The Cathedral being free was such a bonus and the tower tour was really good and glad e did that. We may sure to fully embrace being tourists, leaving no part of Chester unturned to explore and left feeling like we truly made the most if it 😊
