CHESTER: City Walls collapse anniversary to be marked

In January 2020 a collapse in the bottom of the Walls behind 15 to 19 Newgate Street (near to the wall walkway leading out of the Grosvenor Shopping Centre), compromised the integrity of the ancient monument.

Four years on, the Chester City Walls Repair Campaign Group has organised a walk for Saturday, January 20 at 12pm to highlight the issue.

A spokesperson for the group said: "The walk will begin on the clock on the wall and continue towards the river, going past the collapsed section.

"We will then retrace our steps and return to the clock."

Updates about work taking place on the City Walls can be found on Cheshire West and Chester Council's website.

On the section where the collapse took place, close to the Eastgate Clock, it states: "To ensure that residents, visitors and businesses can still benefit from and enjoy this section of the walls our engineers, alongside external specialists, have designed a temporary walkway which is incorporated into the scaffolding that is needed to prop up the wall.

"The scaffold was carefully designed to protect the Wesley Church Centre, take into account crypts and other buried archaeology between the church and the walls, and maintain a fire escape route for the surrounding buildings.

"More scaffold propping has been designed to support the partially-collapsed inner wall to prevent any further loss and to create a safe working area. When this is in place a roof will be added to protect the site while investigation and repair works take place.

"Access to this land-locked site is extremely difficult for vehicles and so all building materials and equipment have had to be brought in by hand.

"Negotiations are ongoing with surrounding property owners to gain access to the collapse side to install the next phase of the propping.

"When this is in place engineers and conservation specialists can investigate the condition of the remaining structure and plan the repairs in consultation with Historic England."