Chester is a vibrant small city with many daily visitors who enjoy the views of historic English architecture. It’s well worth a visit for a day or so.

Mooring is available within 100 meters of the main city buildings. Chester has an old city centre being encircled by a city wall. It was created by the Romans as a fort in the year 0079! It has a number of medieval buildings, but some of the black-and-white buildings within the city centre are actually Victorian restorations. The listed Grade I walls are almost complete apart from a 100m section and their circumference is 3km, ie 950m across. Greater Chester city is home to 118,000 people.

Strictly speaking I am here describing part of the Chester Canal prior to the Shropshire Union Canal incorporating it. I visited Chester by train to view just the stretch that spans the northern part of the city from Hoole lane Bridge in the east to where it meets the River Dee in the west at Northgate. The weather was, let me  think of something positive – a little dull!! The canal route is enjoyable with many facilities for boaters, walkers and cyclists with a pleasing and spirit uplifting vista. It skirts the northern section of the circular town wall from the north-east then veers off to the north-west where it meets a link canal that joins the River Dee via a staircase lock (closed at the time of writing).

I have prepared a slideshow of my photos taken along the canal. Also, below is a gallery of pictures of the busy part of the city.

Click here to open a separate page with an annotated Google Map of the area of Chester visited with all the placemarks identified.

Click here to find out how to get the most out of the photos.

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