Two women are determined to cross the new Queen’s Park Suspension Bridge before the Mayor on the day of its Grand Opening!

Queen's Park Bridge - the Grand Opening

A schoolgirl, when Dee House was the Ursuline Convent School, is an eyewitness when the first trace of an amphitheatre is discovered in 1929 – but to discover more the sweet shop must be demolished.

Roman Amphitheatre

The park-keeper’s family lived in the Lodge – what was it like inside?

Grosvenor Lodge

Flower beds are planted with beetroots during the war – the park-keeper’s son recalls the park was planted very differently when his father was in charge.

Grosvenor Park

A little girl witnesses a zeppelin appear over the city in 1917 or 1918. But did she? We have not found any evidence that zeppelins carried out raids as far north as Chester, but this memory is so vivid we can only imagine the terror they inspired that perhaps a nightmare or an eyewitness account made this very real 80 years later.

Duke's Monument

Fancy an ice cream? In this clip you can almost taste the ice cream from the 1920s – though we think ice cream today is probably closer to how it was in the 1920s than what was available in the early 1980s!

Ice Cream On The Dee

Promenade along the Groves and imagine the sounds and sights of the city illuminated.

Bandstand

Opened in 1923 – replacing a narrow private bridge that allowed businessmen from Queen’s Park to catch their trains!

Queen's Park Bridge

A view of the river – perfect vantage point to watch the regatta!

Belvedere

Welcome to Cheshire Archives & Local Studies where this converted warehouse holds miles of shelving full of records that document almost 1000 years of Cheshire life. Some of these records are oral histories recorded on cassettes, and tape cannot be trusted to survive for decades. Without the National Lottery Heritage Fund project run by British Library and the expertise at the north west hub at Archives+ in Manchester the voices on our talking tour would have been lost. In the early 1980s the Chester Archaeological Society recorded older residents’ recollections of life in the city throughout the twentieth century – we hope you enjoy a tour of the city through their eyes.

Cheshire Record Office

A schoolgirl in the 1920s, whose route to school took her along Brook Street and Frodsham Street, with vivid memories of the sights and smells of shops at Christmas – but look out for the cows! She also remembers cows being driven from the cattle market where the bus station is now along Brook Street and Hoole Bridge to the railway sidings on Lightfoot Street.

Setting the scene – Brook Street

‘Two things couldn’t pass at the same time’ – much like today – chemists, shoe shops and bookshops – how much is that doggy in the window?

Frodsham Street

Hear all about ‘Porky Pie Duttons’ where Marks and Spencers is now – with a sweet factory in the back!

Duttons, Foregate Street

Chester is about to open a new market replacing the new market mentioned here. But it is the old market that is brought to life – the china seller who smashes the items he doesn’t sell to the crowd entertain this young lad!

Old Chester Market

Bollands Window Displays & Wedding Cakes

Can you imagine taking a seat when you enter a shop and items being brought to you – or even brought to you sitting in your car outside? Welcome to the world of Minshull and Meeson.

Minshull & Meeson

Curious figures from Venice promoted the stationer and bookseller Phillipson and Golder.

Phillipson & Golder

Mr Stephen Brown, a member of the family who founded the famous Chester department store, describes the shops expansion in the early 20th century.

Expansion of Browns in the early 20th century

Mr Stephen Brown describes the attitudes of customers to the expansion of Browns.

Reactions of existing customers to the expansion of Browns

What would Browns customers or Mr Minshull and Mr Meeson have thought when F W Woolworth moved in across the street where Next is now? There is no ‘shopwalker’ and browsing is encouraged – and plastic goods arrive. And Woolworths expanded throughout the twentieth century filling the space between Eastgate Street and St Werbergh’s Street.

Woolworths

Isabel describes her experience of visiting a cross dressing service in North Wales and "becoming Isabel" for the first time.

Isobel on visiting a cross dressing service

Charles describes his first time attending London Pride in 2015.

Charles on attending London Pride for the first time

Michael describes his response to the implementation of Section 28 or Clause 28 of the Local Goverment Act 1988, which stated that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

Michael E on Section 28

Stan describes the gay scene in Chester in the late 1970s, including Melanies bar and the Chester branch of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

Stan on the Chester gay scene in the 1970s

Beryl Annikey talks about her 21 day voyage from Jamaica to England in 1957 to join her future husband; her work in a clothing factory in Birmingham; and the differences she found between Jamaica and England when she first arrived.

Beryl Annikey discusses her voyage from Jamaica to Britain

Pamela Nsofor talks about her first impression of Britain after moving from Nigeria  – the reality of getting a job compared with the view back home that the streets of London are lined with gold.

Pamela Nsofor discusses her first impressions of Britain after moving from Nigeria

Cheshire Archives & Local Studies: where Cheshire's history lives. 

A shared service of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Councils.

Cheshire Archives & Local Studies

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