There’s nothing cheesy about Cheshire….then I met a Roman Centurion!

You know when you get off an aircraft after around 24hrs flying and then you jump into a rental car and drive to your first night’s accommodation, hoping that it is not to far….you can be a touch spacy!

Well, I reckon I had one of the spaciest experiences ever, in being told that in Chester in Northern England, the “capital” of the county of Cheshire…yes where Cheshire cheese comes from, that I was being taken on a walking tour of the city Chester in Northern England only to lob up in the lobby and be confronted with my guide, a Roman Centurion in full Roman gear.

Now, I am not a particularly shy and retiring person, but walking around the streets of Chester with a Roman Centurion in all the gear right down to his helmet was quite an experience and one that the people who saw me thought quite amusing, attracting a cat call or two!   Well my Centurion was wearing a skirt!

What the cat callers did not realise was that the weapons my Roman Centurion guide aka Paul Harston, Director of Roman Tours, who has been doing this for ages, were for real!

[Some of Paul’s team are pictured right]

Paul described his role to me as taking history off the page and breathing life into it and he must know, he does this every day of the week all year round, along with his colleagues taking thousands of tourist around Chester revealing to them the heart and history of this ancient and very important Roman fortress.

To see a TravelMole TV interview with Paul click here: 

http://www.travelmole.tv/watch_vdo.php?sid=75&id=14527

Paul and his colleagues also take this Roman stuff all pretty seriously, running Roman army workshops, drill and marching activities, boot camp activity days, including military training, foraging and eating in the 1st century, medicine, lifestyles and team building exercises, Roman cooking displays, Gladiator schools and team builder courses….Roman style…I wonder what that means!

What many visitors to Chester do not realise until someone like Paul takes them round is that Chester has a very rich history indeed, spanning nearly 2000 years, with the city founded in AD 79 when the Roman 20th legion, which ad travelled on foot all the way from Rome, started construction of their new fortress, which they called Deva, which was being set up as a frontier outpost to control the Welsh tribes from over the border – yes the Welsh were being revolting again!

The Romans chose this location for Deva because it was situated on a sandstone outcrop in a loop in the River Dee, it was close to the sea, navigable to that point with a natural harbour and was also the site of the lowest fordable crossing point of the River Dee, one of Britain’s longest rivers.

The amazing thing about Deva was that it became a very impressive and important legionary headquarters, with the city’s four main streets running from its four main gates in a rectangle and even today they still intersect as they were planned over 1900 years ago.

Deva was surrounded by a 20 foot high wall and inside was the Principia, the Legion’s headquarters, the baths, the Legion clubs, granaries, barracks and everything else a Legion needed to sustain itself and keep the troops happy!

Interestingly, there was an 8,000 seat Amphitheatre outside the walls and the site of that amphitheatre can be seen today.

While the fortress at Deva was smaller than today’s walled city, Chester is the only city in Britain that is still completely encircled by its Roman walls.

It is not clear when the 20th Legion was recalled to Rome, but historians believe that it was during the middle of the 4th century, with over the next several hundred years, the majestic fortress of Deva falling into decay.

For more information on Roman Tours please visit: www.romantoursuk.com or email Paul on [email protected]

An on location in Europe report by The Mole