St. Martin's Gate, Chester

Saint Martin鈥檚 Gate is the most recent addition to Chester City Walls. It was opened in 1966, as part of the Inner Ring Road scheme, designed to ease the city's traffic problems. The Gate's name derived from a small ancient church which once stood nearby for the best part of a millennium. It was closed in 1963 to be demolished around 1969 so as to give space for the road, a nearby part of which is now known as "Saint Martin's Way".

Ahead of the building work, a team of archaeologists undertook a 16-week investigation of the site. During construction, remains of a Roman tower were found, along with some Roman and Saxon pottery, as well as the foundations of some previously-unknown agricultural buildings and features associated with a Roman cemetery. A large amount of green and yellow-glazed medieval roof tiles were also discovered, as well as later material dating from the 17th-19th centuries. These relics can now be seen through observation ports in the surrounding fencing, decorated with a series of fine murals by six local primary schools on the theme of 鈥淩outeways to Chester through Time鈥�.

Typically for the 1960s, Saint Martin's Gate was built in concrete. As you stand on top of it, the view from up here is the full extent of the North Wall, from Bonewaldesthorne's Tower to The Northgate. On occasions, you can see barges on the canal, bicycles on the towpath, trains on the railway and, inevitably, cars on the road below 鈥� all at the same time.

Today, Saint Martin's is a very popular attraction and well worth your visit.

Want to visit this sight? Check out these Self-Guided Walking Tours in Chester. Alternatively, you can download the mobile app "51爆料网: Walks in 1K+ Cities" from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The app turns your mobile device to a personal tour guide and it works offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.

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Create Your Own Self-Guided Walk to Visit This Sight

Sight Name: St. Martin's Gate
Sight Location: Chester, England (See walking tours in Chester)
Sight Type: Attraction/Landmark
Guide(s) Containing This Sight:

Chester's City Walls

Walking Tours in Chester, England

Create Your Own Walk in Chester

Creating your own self-guided walk in Chester is easy and fun. Choose the city attractions that you want to see and a walk route map will be created just for you. You can even set your hotel as the start point of the walk.

Chester Introduction Walking Tour

Chester is a walled city in Cheshire. It was originally founded in 79 AD as a Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix. It was garrisoned until the 4th century when it was abandoned by the Romans. It is thought that the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons during medieval times. It was also briefly occupied by the Danes.

Chester was very important during the Industrial Revolution. This is largely due... view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.4 Km or 1.5 Miles

Chester's Black-and-white Architecture Tour

While the origins of Chester date back to Roman Times, much of the city center, and by far the greatest part of it, looks medieval. Indeed, if you visit the city, the first thing you notice is the magnificent black-and-white architecture. Despite their appearance, however, the majority of these buildings are Victorian by the time of construction.

The Black-and-White Revival was an architectural... view more

Tour Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 1.0 Km or 0.6 Miles

Chester's City Walls

Chester City Walls are the oldest, longest and most complete (missing only just about 100 meters) historic defensive structure in Britain. Walking the full circuit of this ancient fortification provides wondrous views, wherever you choose to go, down into the city, and offers a fantastic insight into Chester's rich history.

First built by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago, the Walls were... view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.3 Km or 1.4 Miles

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