The early medieval city and its buildings

This paper considers the bistory of Chester and its buildings from post-Roman times to the early 13th century. Although there may have been settlement, a church and perhaps a mint before the city's recorded bistory begins in 907, few archaeological traces remain. After AEthelflaed's refortification, late Anglo-Saxon Chester developed into an important ecclesiastical and trading centre, dominated by its two minster precincts, and already with a crowded urban centre. The Normans intruded the castle, extended the defences and rebuilt the two main churches. By the early 13th century the city's layout was largely determined; it bad acquired its full complement of parish churches, almost all its religious houses, and was about to embark upon its period of greatest prosperity.