The Roman walls of Chester are being restored by a team of the city’s archaeologists. A section up to 30m long collapsed in April 2008 and has been closed to visitors ever since. According to Cheshire West and Chester Council, piecing the wall together could take up to one year, but in the meanwhile visitors can watch the archaeologists at work from a temporary walkway.
The rebuilding of the wall should be quite ‘authentic’ the project team, including specialists from English Heritage as well as other specialists, has researched Roman wall-building techniques and hope to reconstruct something faithful to the original.
A council spokesman told the BBC: “Chester is world-famous for its city walls and the council has a responsibility to maintain this important heritage asset both for residents and visitors. Not only will this work reinstate the full circuit of the walls, but it provides us with an opportunity to understand how the walls were built in the first place.”
The Roman, Saxon and medieval walls in Chester are the most complete set of city walls in Britain. A military presence in Chester was mostly to have first been established in 47-48 AD during the campaign of Publius Ostorius Scapula against the tribes in north-east Wales. By 79 AD a bigger military camp was set up at Chester by the Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis and the town was named Dewa or Deva. Around this time the fort was constructed although the walls were reinforced in the late third and early fourth centuries.
Photo by lreed7649.