And on the west side, under the city arms,
BEGUN A.D. MDCCLXVIII, JOHN KELSALL,
ESQ., MAYOR. FINISHED A.D. MDCCLXIX,
CHAS. BOSWELL, ESQ., MAYOR.
From the summit of the gate there is a fine view of Eastgate-street, within the walls, and Foregate, or Forest-street on the outside. On a market day it is truly spirit-stirring to observe the multitude beneath, and listen to the “busy hum of men,” citizens and country folks, engaged in buying and selling,—bringing in and carrying out,—the various commodities which furnish forth the provision market of a county town. On the same spot formerly stood
The Old Eastgate,
removed in 1768, as too narrow and inconvenient for one of the principal entrances to the city. It consisted of a beautifully formed Gothic archway, flanked by two massive octagonal embattled towers, connected by a substantial building, two stories in height, over the gateway, the roof of which was raised to a level with and embattled in the same manner as the flanking towers to which it formed the centre. From the bearings on four shields which ornamented the front of this gate, it is conjectured to have been erected during the reign of Edward III.
A Roman gateway appears to have occupied the same spot at a still earlier period; for in pulling down the Old Eastgate in 1768, two wide circular arches of Roman architecture were discovered within its workmanship.
With all due admiration for the spirit of useful improvement which dictated the erection of the present Eastgate, we cannot avoid expressing our regret that the old one no longer remains to gratify the eye of the antiquary and the man of taste. Although the present gate is undoubtedly much better adapted for the entrance of carriages of all kinds, yet the Cestrians of the last century, who remembered the glories of the old structure, must have been but ill reconciled to its substitute.
Having thus completed the circuit of the Walls of Chester, as they at present stand, it only remains to notice that there was formerly an outer gate in Foregate-street, about half a mile from the Eastgate, called
The Bars Gate,
which, being in a very dilapidated state, was removed as a nuisance in 1770. An outwork, in connection with this gate, was raised previous to the siege of Chester in 1643. This outwork, consisting of a mud wall, fortified with mounts and bastions, joined the City Wall at the New Tower, from whence it stretched out to the north-east so far as to take in Upper Northgate-street; then running eastward, encompassed all the suburbs on the north of Foregate-street, until it approached Boughton, when it turned southward, and proceeded in that direction across Foregate-street at the Bars Gate, down Dee-lane, at the bottom of which its course was terminated by the river. This outwork withstood a violent assault by the Puritans under Sir William Brereton, on the 18th July, 1643, wherein the assailants were forced to retire with great loss; but on the 19th of September, 1645, it was surprised and carried by a night assault of the enemy, under the command of General Louthian, and was afterwards occupied by the Puritans as a circumvallation, while prosecuting the siege of the city.