Wednesday 6th & Thursday 7th June
On Wednesday we moved on to our next campsite near Chester and on the way stopped off at Port Sunlight near Bebington on the Wirral. This is the model village founded in 1888 by William Hesketh Lever, later Viscount Leverhulme, to house the workers from the Lever Brothers “Sunlight Soap” factory. William Lever created the village as part of his business model of “profit sharing” but rather than sharing profits directly with his employees, he wanted to provide them with decent and affordable houses, amenities and welfare facilities to make their lives secure and comfortable, with the intention that this would also inspire their loyalty and commitment.
It was a perfect day to visit the village, as it was bright and sunny but not crowded, and we easily found a place to park the motorhome on a crescent by the church grounds. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the village, admiring the houses, formal buildings and monuments set in attractive parkland and gardens. It was larger than we had anticipated, with more than 900 Grade II listed buildings created by over 30 different architects in a variety of styles. In addition to the church, the village originally had its own hospital (now a hotel) and a school (now the Lyceum Social Club). The Lady Lever Art Gallery and formal gardens were very impressive, as was the large memorial dedicated to the employees of Lever Brothers who fought in the two world wars. A garden in memory of those who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster has recently been created with a vista across the Diamond to the Art Gallery. We were amused by the multi-coloured knitted “cosies” covering the bollards near the Lyceum Club, which reminded us of the knitted and crocheted objects decorating buildings that we had seen when driving through Mountmellick in the Irish Midlands last year. We were surprised that Bridge Cottage, the sometime home of William Lever in 1888 and 1889, was relatively modest compared with some of the buildings in the village. In fact we were both surprised and impressed by the size of all the workers’ homes as we expected them to be small terraced houses, whereas they are actually a mixture of very nicely presented terraces and semi-detached houses that anyone would be happy to live in.
We ate our lunch in the motorhome overlooking one of the parks before continuing our journey to Netherwood Touring Site in Rowton near Chester. This is a small campsite in the grounds of Netherwood House just off the A41 between Chester and Whitchurch. There is no sign for the actual house, just a brown caravan sign, and the turning is a normal house driveway but we managed to pull into okay from the busy main road. Its website advertises a maximum motorhome length of 7.6m, but Michelle in the site office was able to accommodate our 7.9m motorhome on one of the hardstanding pitches. The site is in a large, landscaped field, based on an oval and there is plenty of room between pitches for the caravans, motorhomes and tents it caters for. It backs on to the Shropshire Union Canal which is accessed by a gate onto the towpath, so once we had set up, we walked along by the canal for a while, watching herons diving for fish and barges moving in both directions. Later we walked along the towpath to the “One Stop Shop” about a mile away to stock up on provisions.
As Thursday morning was warm and sunny we decided to walk the three miles along the canal bank into Chester. It was a very pleasant walk and took about an hour to reach the city centre, entering it by way of Frodsham Street.
We hadn’t visited the city before, but know that it is steeped in history, and this was demonstrated in spades by the wonderful old buildings along Eastgate, Watergate and Northgate. We had a few errands to run, including buying a pay-as-you-go simcard for my iPad, as the monthly data in my contract had run out with nine days still to go before it was due to be renewed. We had checked online and EE seemed to offer the best deal, but we were disappointed to find that this is not available at the shop. However, the very nice salesman at Carphone Warehouse pointed us in the direction of Vodafone in the Grosvenor Centre who were able to supply me with a 30-day 20gb data card for £30 which seemed very reasonable.
After sorting out my data card we headed towards the Town Hall on Northgate Street and passed a number of buskers on the way. We were treated to a very good Bob Marley tribute, a Sam Smith soundalike giving an impressive rendition of Ed Sheeran’s “Happier” and a female bagpiper in full costume including a dirk (small knife tucked into her long socks). The Town Hall and Cathedral are very picturesque and well worth the walk.
We had a quick lunch in the Red Lion pub on Northgate where we were able to catch up on the French Tennis Open on TV, before heading for the city walls. We entered them at Newgate then turned left towards Eastgate and crossed the bridge beneath the ornate clock celebrating Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. We passed the cathedral and a falconry display in the field next to it before approaching the King Charles Tower where King Charles I was thought to have stood in September 1645 as he watched his soldiers being defeated at the Battle of Rowton Heath.
There were more interesting facts to learn and views to see as we continued along the city walls, although there was a small diversion near Morgan’s Mount where renovation work was being carried out. Particular highlights for us were the Eastgate clock, the Water Tower on a short spur from the wall, the Roodee Racecourse, and the views across the river Dee and the two bridges. Given more time we would have left the wall at the river and walked along the bank to the moored boats as the area appeared very lively. As we walked back along the wall towards the city centre we were a little disappointed in the Roman Gardens as the ruins are not actually in situ, but at least they are preserved. We later found this interesting website which gives a huge amount of information about the city walls and their history: https://www.chesterwalls.info/chesterintro.html
As we toured the Chester streets and walked along the city walls we were curious about an idiosyncrasy we had not seen elsewhere. Some of the half-timbered buildings were inscribed with biblical sayings, like this house on Park Street that we saw from the city walls which was originally a town house built in 1881, and is now a dental surgery.
We had walked almost ten miles during the day so we decided that we would return to the campsite by bus. I was impressed by the bus interchange and we found the stand for the number 41 bus easily. We alighted at Christleton High School, which was the nearest bus stop to the campsite, and walked from there across the bridge over the canal and back to the motorhome where we spent the rest of the evening relaxing after our enjoyable day out.
Con and Hil's motorhome travels 
Your photos are beautiful. I only live a stone’s throw from Chester and I’m ashamed to say I’ve never visited. I will one day. Thank you for a lovely post!
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Thanks for the kind words. We used to live in Cheshire and we had never visited Chester either, so it was on our list of “places to see” and we’re very glad we did!
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