Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Chester Citadel, situated in Chester, Cheshire, England, stands on the southwest fringe of the town partitions. Based by William the Conqueror in 1070 to safe Norman management, it was granted to his nephew Hugh d’Avranches, who turned Earl of Chester.
The fortress guarded the Welsh border and oversaw a key inland port. The earls of Chester ruled the area with vital autonomy till Henry III assumed management of the title, fortress, and lands in 1237. Regardless of many adjustments over the centuries, Chester Citadel remained the town’s heart of army and authorized authority.
Chester Citadel is famend for a number of options, together with the Agricola Tower, constructed round 1200. The crypt beneath the tower held notable prisoners, equivalent to Richard II, King of England from 1377 to 1399, and Eleanor Cobham, a noblewoman sentenced to life imprisonment in 1441 following accusations of working towards black magic.
Chester Citadel. Credit score: College of Chester
Current explorations at Chester Citadel enabled a staff of archaeologists from the College of Chester to make a big discovery with out excavation.
Professor Stewart Ainsworth, Time Group’s Panorama Archaeologist and Visiting Professor on the College of Chester, explored the stays of the 18th-century jail beneath Chester Crown Court docket. Throughout his investigation, he found stonework on the finish of a darkish hall.
“The partitions of the jail and courts designed by Thomas Harrison are typical late 18th-century masonry. It was darkish on the finish of that outdated hall – however by the sunshine of my telephone I might instantly inform that a big part of wall within the gloom forward was completely totally different. It turned a proper angle and disappeared out of sight, leaving a really darkish, slender hole that I couldn’t squeeze into,” Professor Ainsworth defined.
The Agricola Tower. Credit score: BrianP – CC BY-SA 2.0
“After I in contrast the kind of stones and the constructing approach with the surviving components of the Norman fortress, it was clear that this underground wall should even be medieval. Till now, everybody has believed that Thomas Harrison destroyed this a part of the fortress to create the buildings we see at present.
However the wall I found is huge – virtually three metres excessive – so we now know that he left a number of the medieval stonework untouched. And I’m guessing rather more might survive underneath the automotive park and chateau advanced, ” he added.
Excessive-resolution digital scanners have been used to pinpoint the placement of the underground wall. A comparability with outdated maps and plans confirmed it was as soon as a part of a medieval bridge throughout a deep ditch surrounding the fortress’s strongly defended interior ward. The bridge was in all probability constructed about 800 years in the past, within the 1260-1280s, when a closely fortified gateway was added to the interior ward to interchange an earlier gateway. Thomas Harrison subsequently demolished that Thirteenth-century gateway.
A part of the found Medieval bridge. Credit score: College of Chester
The fortress’s unique stone gateway, now often called the Agricola Tower, is sorted by English Heritage and is open to guests at weekends. On the primary flooring of the tower, the chapel of St Mary de Castro comprises fragments of uncommon and delightful wall work relationship to the 1240s.
The newly found wall at Chester Citadel is similar to a part of the bridge throughout the deep ditch at Beeston Citadel, the stays of which guests can nonetheless see at present. There, a drawbridge could possibly be raised to stop attackers reaching the twin-towered, Thirteenth-century gatehouse. It’s doubtless {that a} related association as soon as existed at Chester Citadel.
See additionally:Â Extra Archaeology Information
The underground stays and different components of the fortress have been digitally scanned by the College and SCCS North to create extremely correct 3D fashions as a part of Digital Dimensions, a collaborative challenge between the College, Cheshire Constabulary, English Heritage, Historic England and the Hartree Nationwide Centre for Digital Innovation.
Supply: College of Chester
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Employees Author
