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March Lecture: Chester the must-see European City 20 years on

Wednesday, 19th March 2025 7.30pm.

In 2005 Chester unveiled two ambitious collaborative plans. Its Place Marketing Strategy set out the vision of Chester becoming a must-see European city by 2015 and its Culture Park set out the steps to achieve it through sensitive development that would make the most of the city’s assets. They were lauded nationally as forward-thinking best practice, yet by 2012 they had largely been forgotten, mentioned only in an appendix of the One City Plan they had helped inspire.

Fast forward to 2025, Chester has become the Most Welcoming City in the UK and ranks with Rome and other cities as the most beautiful. The Culture Park’s architect, Andy Farrall, is Chair of the Making Group of One City Plan 2.0, and its Programme Manager, Colin Potts, leads the OCP Visiting Group, chairs Destination Chester and heads the University of Chester’s tourism courses.

In this lecture Colin will review the Place Marketing and Culture Park plans, reflect on how much has been achieved and consider the place Chester could become – 20 years on.

Venue: Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre, 27 Grosvenor St, Chester CH1 2DD. Free parking on the Castle car park after 6pm.

FREE entry to members. Guests are welcome, £5 on the door.

 

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February Event: Chester Witches

Friday, 28th February 2025 at 7.30pm. at Bishop Lloyd’s Palace

Speakers: Peter Eliott and Clare Dudman

There were trials and executions of witches in Chester in the seventeenth century and this meeting will explore some aspects of this.

Local historian, Peter Elliott, discusses these on his Chesterwiki site. It inspired one of our members, Clare Dudman, to create a film about the events.

Peter will outline social and legal attitudes to witches in Puritan times and the situation in the North-West and North Wales, especially in Chester. Many myths have sprung up about the Chester Witches’, but the real history is far more fascinating.

After a break Clare will speak about her film, ‘The Three Ravens’. It tells the story of three of the witches brought to trial in Chester, and the Judge John Bradshaw. As President of the High Court of Justice, Bradshaw, a Cheshire man, signed the execution order for Charles I. He was also Chief Justice of the Chester and North Wales Circuit and presided over several witch trials.

‘Three Ravens’ is Clare’s fourth event for the Heritage Festival, filmed mainly in Bishop Lloyd’s Palace in 2023. She received a commission, which allowed her to pay for professional actors

The cost of the evening is £8.

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2025 DATES FOR THE DIARY

JANUARY 5th 7pm.*
‘Twelfth Night Quiz’ – Bishop Lloyds Palace – £10 including festive refreshments – booking forms in December mail out

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15th at the Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre at 7.30pm
Lecture Series: DR JAMES WRIGHT will talk about his recent book ‘Historic Building Mythbusting’

THURSDAY JANUARY 30th** at Bishop Lloyd’s Palace at 2.00pm
MICHAEL TREVOR BARNSTON, a Life Member of Chester Civic Trust, will give a talk about his family’s illustrious history followed by afternoon tea. Booking forms in the December Newsletter

FEBRUARY 12th at the Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre at 7.30pm
Lecture Series: Create Streets – a Think Tank currently supporting Cheshire West and Chester.

FEBRUARY 28th** at Bishop Lloyd’s Palace at 7.30pm
Chester Witches Peter Elliott and Clare Dudman

MARCH 19th at the Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre at 7.30pm
Lecture Series: Colin Potts, Programme Leader International Tourism Management, University of Chester.

MARCH 31 – APRIL 4*
Residential visit to the Surrey Hills including the Watts Gallery and Artists Village (details in the December Newsletter). Following from the lecture in November, a visit to the Watts Gallery and Village will be one of the highlights of the 5 day visit for members of the Trust. Other places of interest during the visit will include Hughenden Manor, the home of Benjamin Disraeli, the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham and a private viewing of the National Trust’s Polesden Lacey.

APRIL 10th** 
Day visit to Llangollen including a tour of Plas Newydd. lunch and talk on the Pontcysllte World Heritage Site.

APRIL 16th. at the Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre at 7.30pm
Lecture Series: Peter Cocker will give a talk on Thomas Brassey: The World’s Greatest Railway Builder, celebrated at Chester Railway Station.

MAY 21st
Special guided tour of Wrexham.

JUNE 24th, Tuesday 7pm.
Celebration Sapphire Jubilee (65th year) Dinner – more details tba.

OCTOBER 2nd
AGM

More dates and details to come!!

Please note Civic Trust members have FREE admission to the lectures at the Grosvenor Museum. Guests are welcome £5 on the door.

(Booking forms for events marked * were included in the September mail out. **were included in the December mail out. )

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February Lecture: Create Streets

George Payiatis, a Senior Urban Designer with Create Streets, gave a presentation on the recent research and work carried out by Create Streets.

Create Streets is currently working on a draft design code for Cheshire West and Chester Council. (At this stage George will NOT be able to give any details.)

The foundation has already set 7 design codes including the town centre of Lichfield with 100 new homes and a design code for wider pavements and more street trees in new developments across Surrey. See a list of Create Streets 2024 developments on the Create Streets website

Slides from the event were promised by the speaker, meanwhile a selection of slides from the event are available here.

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The Trevor Barnston Family: From the Norman Conquest to the 21st Century

On 30th January 2025 Michael Trevor Barnston gave a superb talk on ‘The Trevor Barnston Family: From the Norman Conquest to the 21st Century’.

Michael spoke about his fascinating family history stretching back to 1066 when Hugh de Berneston settled in the Wirral, in the area of the village of Barnston. Michael can trace his family history in Farndon back to the time of King Edward I who reigned from 1272-1307. During the Civil War, William Barnston, who was an ardent Royalist was captured and imprisoned by the Parliamentarians. The Farndon Obelisk commemorates Roger Barnston who served throughout the Crimean War and died at the siege of Lucknor in india. The landholdings of the Barnston Estate in Hapsford, Churton and Farndon were enhanced through the ages by marriages to local heiresses. Michael mentioned his gardens there where we were able to hold our Summer event last year.

Over the centuries the members of the Trevor Barnston family have been closely involved with the military and public life across the county of Cheshire.

Following Michael’s talk, tea and coffee and cake were served.

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Nominations for the 2025 Good, Bad, Ugly awards CLOSED

The Nomination process for Chester Civic Trust’s, 2025 The Good, The Bad, The Ugly awards has now closed for judging. The outcome will be announced during the final week of March 2025. many thanks to all that made nominations.

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Annual General Meeting October 2024

The AGM was held on Thursday 3rd October 2024 in the Refectory, Chester Cathedral, St Werburgh Street, Chester.

The formal business was preceded by a fantastic talk from The Bishop of Chester, Mark Tanner.

Mark spoke significantly about the buildings we inherit, use and pass on to others and how their function might, or has to, change to fit the times. We are simply custodians!

The conversion of Chester Civic Trust’s status to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) was voted in unanimously.

Here is the link to the new constitution which has been worked on intensively and approved by your committees and trustees.

 

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Guests from the Foundling Hospital in London

In May the trust did something unusual: we moved one of our regular social meetings from Bishop Lloyd’s Palace to the Bluecoat Building. We have to thank Mike, Cathy and Janette for welcoming us there. The changed location was appropriate because Anthony Annakin-Smith was giving his lecture on Chester Foundling Hospital. It was housed in the building.

A group of visitors from the London branch joined us as our guests. They were led by Chris Jones and her Voices Through Time digitalisation team. The Coram Hospital kept detailed records of the children in its care. These date from 1739 to the mid-fifties. There are over half a million documents. The team is digitalising the earliest records. These form about a quarter of the archive. They consist of such items as the registration records of the children. They were numbered on arrival and given a new name. Baptism took place if this was necessary. If the mother left a note this was placed on the record. Medical records are also available. Some of these stories are available on the web

Tony has been working with the group. On a random visit to the Museum, he discovered that a branch of the Hospital had been opened in Chester. This was an interesting surprise to him, and he was driven to research this new information.

Between 1756 and 1760 the government legislated that all children handed in to the Hospital had to be cared for. This period, called the Great Reception, meant that the number of children in the Hospital’s care was multiplied. It was beyond what the London branch could manage, and seven provincial outposts were opened. Chester was one of these.  It took orphans from London from 1763 to 1769. The hub of their work was the Bluecoat Building but most children were ‘farmed out’ to so-called nurses in local villages.

There is a synopsis of Tony’s engrossing talk on the Coram website. He is also writing a book on the subject. He hopes it will be published next year. We will keep you informed.

The Foundling Museum in the Euston/Bloomsbury area is well worth a visit. Upstairs are magnificent rooms and an art gallery. Downstairs is a museum telling the sad stories of the young people in its care. Particularly moving is the collection of tokens left by parents to identify their child in case they could ever reclaim them.

FOUNDLING MUSEUM, 40, BRUNSWICK SQUARE, LONDON. WC1N 1AZ. Open Tuesday to Sunday

Karen McKay

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2024 Good, Bad and Ugly Awards

Now in its 18th year, The Chester Civic Trust has given its verdict on the best examples of new development, renovation of existing buildings and community projects in its annual Good, Bad and Ugly awards for the City.

The awards made at a ceremony at the headquarters of Chester Civic Trust at Bishop Lloyd’s Palace Watergate Street, Chester on 17th June, highlight Chester’s buildings, places, spaces and projects in an alternative ‘New Financial Year Honours list’.

Peter Hadfield, chairman of the judging panel, said: “These annual awards are based on nominations from our members. They aim to recognise the best changes to the Chester property scene in the past year. We hope they will encourage higher standards of design and maintenance in our public realm. As always, I would like to thank my fellow Judges for their time and commitment visiting and providing insightful comments on the nominations.”

He added; “Members of the Chester Civic Trust excelled this year with a total of 55 nominations. 32 Bad/Ugly nominations were submitted together with 23 Good nominations.

All categories included an interesting mix of nominations. Once again it was good to see some from outside the city and we would like to receive more in the future.

The judges said; “The Bad and The Ugly Awards are included in the hope that it will prompt action. Sadly, given the current stagnant economy and inadequate funding for local services, we are not anticipating that 2024 will bring many improvements.

As usual we had many nominations for our ‘Hardy Perennials’ (those buildings which get mentioned year after year) including Dee House, the state of the City Walls, the former Quicks Garage and St Olaves Church. We remain concerned about all these areas but this year we decided to concentrate on new nominations and those which we have not mentioned for some time.”

There were several projects which the Judges declined to consider this year as they are incomplete. These will automatically be included with other nominations next year.”

The Chair’s Special Award

  • Picturehouse

The Good Awards

  • The Flaggs and Hamilton House, Church Street, Tarvin
  • ōH Chester Design Foundation, Bridge Street
  • 6-12 Saint Werburgh Street, Renovation of Facades
  • New Chester Market
  • Chester Zoo Nature Recovery Corridor

Good – Commendations

  • The White Horse, Churton
  • Bren Bikes, Live! New Scene, Newton
  • New Residential Property, Farndon
  • The Lock Vaults, Hoole Lane
  • Chester Residents Association Group

The Bad and The Ugly Awards

  • Delamere Street
  • The Roman Strong Room
  • The Riverside Promenade
  • Interpretive Devices
  • Collapsed Wall, Liverpool Road
  • Closure of a Section of The Rows
  • Poor Street Lighting

 

A full copy of the judges’ comments is available.

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The Most beautiful building in Chester

Cheshire Live report on the Bishop Lloyd’s Palace Open Day

‘The most beautiful building in Chester’ seemingly hidden in plain sight – Cheshire Live (cheshire-live.co.uk)

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