Chester Memories: Spooky scenes from a city steeped in haunted history

By Chester Chronicle on Oct 25, 09 01:45 PM in 2000 onwards

THERE'S plenty of ghostly goings on at the Chester History and Heritage Centre.

With Hallowe'en just around the corner, the museum is showcasing a 'Murder, Mystery and Mayhem' exhibition exploring the city's eerie and paranormal past with sections on ghosts, a haunted hospital, witch trials and some unexplainable curiosities.

The museum has kindly loaned some of the pictures that will feature in the exhibition, which runs until Thursday, October 29

And visitors to the exhibition will learn how you could get more than a pint at some of the pubs in Chester. Like the Blue Bell on Northgate Street. The building is said to be the home of a ghost named Henrietta, a young serving girl. She fell in love with a Royalist cavalryman lodging at the Inn during the Civil War. When he rode to fight in the Battle of Rowton Moor in 1645 she waved goodbye to him from an upstairs window.

The Royalists were defeated at Rowton and when Henrietta heard that her cavalryman had died she hung herself. In fading light she can be seen watching from the window upstairs waiting for him to return to her.

And students beware! Your local, The George and Dragon on Upper Northgate Street. is built on a Roman cemetery. No one has ever seen a ghost but people have said they have heard footsteps in the form of a march approaching, passing them and then fading away. Though about 20 minutes later they said the marching becomes louder again as if the troops are returning in the opposite direction.

Spirits are said to haunt other locations around Chester, including two that are housed in Stanley Palace in Watergate Street, which used to be the town house of the rich and powerful Stanley family. The first is a quiet grey lady and the second of James, Earl Stanley who was beheaded in Bolton after he was arrested for being a Royalist in the Civil War.

The Tudor House on Lower Bridge Street is another building in Chester that has an apparition from the Civil War. Allegedly during the siege a cannonball hurtled through a house decapitating a resting Royalist on the top floor. Since then there have been sightings of his ghost wandering around immaculately dressed though headless.

For more spooky stories and tales on the town's supernatural past, visit the exhibition at the Chester History and Heritage Museum on Bridge Street Row.

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