Repair work on city's Roman walls to begin

A section of Chester's city walls collapsed in January 2020

Repair work to part of a city's historical walls, which collapsed during digging work by developers, is set to start more than four years after the section crumbled.

Cheshire West and Chester Council said work would begin on Chester's famous walls from Monday after an area collapsed in January 2020.

Chester is the only city in Britain to boast a full circuit of the ancient fortifications.

The collapse took place behind Newgate Street near to the walkway leading from the Grosvenor Shopping Centre and not far from the iconic Eastgate clock.

Deputy council leader Karen Shore said: "For reasons beyond the control of the council, repairs have not been progressed as quickly as I would have liked."

The cabinet member for environment, highways and transport added the repair work was a "significant capital scheme involving a scheduled ancient monument that has required a great deal of planning with our heritage engineers".

She said a "great deal" of technical work was needed to "overcome the challenges of accessing such a constrained site and to obtain the relevant consents from English Heritage".

She added she looked forward to seeing the scheme progress.

Chester's walls

The Romans built the famous city walls 2,000 years ago

• Chester is the only city in the UK with a complete circuit of walls still in place, they form a two mile (3.2km) circuit around the centre

• They were first built by the Romans 2,000 years ago and were extended and developed in the 10th Century

• The Normans rebuilt and extended the walls in the 12th Century

• From the 18th Century, they were no longer needed for defence and were adapted to become a fashionable walk and public amenity

Source: Cheshire West and Chester Council