Perhaps best known as the home of footballers and their reality TV-starring housewives, or otherwise lumped in with Manchester, which lies to the north, the real Cheshire too often goes undiscovered. But these preconceptions couldn’t be further from the truth. Cheshire is more industrious than ostentatious, and while proud of its attributes, it prefers to stay out of the limelight.
The county town of Chester is a case in point. With Roman walls and a historic racecourse, Chester is a mini York. It may not have its own minster, but Chester Cathedral is a more than sufficient stand-in, which began life as a monastic house in 1093. While the majority of the Gothic red sandstone structure you see today began construction in 1250, it took a mammoth 275 years to complete. When you peer up at its awe-inspiring vaulted ceiling, you can see why.
Perhaps more famous, however, are Chester’s Roman
