Top Chester Pop Culture

Journey deep into Chester’s dark history on this self-guided walking tour. Rather than follow a timetabled group tour, set out when you want at your preferred pace to experience the city’s creepy locations: uncovering stories and other secrets you may not hear on your own. Visit sites reputedly still guarded by long-ago Roman soldiers, hear about phantom-roamed pubs, wander murky graveyards, and linger as you wish at each stop to absorb the atmosphere. Ideal for ghost-hunters and history buffs.

Discover the ancient Roman history of the city of Chester, once the largest Roman fortress in Britain, during this walking tour. Follow your guide who is dressed as a Roman soldier and learn about the Roman heritage of Chester as you visit landmarks such as the amphitheater, the city walls, and the Roman gardens.

Learn all about the medieval history of Chester from a costumed guide on this small-group tour of the city. Your guide will tell you all about Hotspur’s rebellion and more, using role-play, while you walk between the Chester city walls, medieval rows, and the ruins of the original cathedral, St John’s. This is a lot more entertaining than a self-tour with a guidebook.

Join Historian and Author Nick Kevern as he takes you around the pubs of Chester that featured in his book, The Noose of Samuel Burrows. During this exclusive tour by the author, you will learn more about Chester's infamous executioner and the crimes that led many to his gallows. In each pub, you will hear the fascinating stories about Samuel Burrows and the crimes of those who faced him on his grisly gallows as he sent them to their deaths during the era of public execution. You will also see images of Chester during his lifetime and the historic broadsides that told the criminal stories in all their gory detail. You will also hear an exclusive story that did not feature in the book and is only available on this tour. Copies of The Noose of Samuel Burrows are available to purchase from the Chester Visitor Information Centre and Ye Olde Cottage. At some venues, Burrows Noose English Pale Ale by Weetwood will also be available.

Chester’s medieval streets witnessed real witch trials and barrel-dunkings centuries ago, but today they’re home to a different kind of magic. On this self-guided audio tour, you’ll follow the enchanted adventures from Evelyn Winter’s children’s book The Chester Witches, where thirteen-year-old Winona Wren and her spell-casting Granny transform the city’s dark history into whimsical storytelling wonderment. You’ll start at Chester High Cross, where four medieval streets converge, and follow an enchanted barrel’s chaotic path down Eastgate Street. You’ll pass beneath the iconic Eastgate Clock, wind through the Roman Amphitheatre, and discover how a mischievous barrel once flattened the mayor’s podium and sent enchanted flapjacks into song. You’ll continue along The Groves riverside promenade where Granny Wren’s magical market boat once bobbed, and to Billy Hobby’s Well, where maidens wished for husbands.