Chester is a Victorian city. While it appears to be rich with medieval or Tudor buildings, it was the Victorians who reworked the façades, using the wealth generated by the railways in the 1840s, and indulging their love of the black-and-white aesthetic. In a wider sense, too, the Victorians bequeathed us a rich legacy: funfairs and music halls; gin and tonic; opium dens and aspirin. But, most of all, they gave us the best ghost stories. After all, the Victorians were consumed with the rituals of mourning. The canon of Gothic literature spans the Victorian era, too, starting with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818 and culminating with Dracula, Bram Stoker’s satire on the dying days of Victorian society, from 1897.

Now I love a Christmas ghost story – from reading the dark tales of M.R. James to rewatching The Muppet Christmas Carol. For me, a ghost story is as festive as chestnuts roasting on an open fire. With nights drawing in, I’ve been collecting dark tales of Chester for my new book, A Dark History of Chester, based on Dark Chester, my storytelling walking tour of my home city. The book spans Chester’s 2,000-year history, including stories from the city’s Victorian-Gothic heyday. Chester is regularly voted one of Britain’s most haunted cities and, given its rich heritage and old buildings, it’s positively brimming with stories of ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night. Both the book and the tour are a light-hearted exploration of our past, based on folk tales and popular legends – not a weighty academic study. Think, therefore, plenty of gallows humour and pantomime-style audience participation. I hope even Queen Victoria would have been amused.

Chester Cathedral started life as a Benedictine monastery where the monks told ghost stories of reanimated corpses and nighttime visits by the Devil. Getty (Image: Getty)

BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

Chester Cathedral was built post-Norman Conquest, but the building today has a typically Victorian-Gothic feel, the architect George Gilbert Scott having restored the exterior and added fanciful embellishments in the mid-1800s. He called it a ‘Victorian shell with medieval heart,’ a Victorian vision of life in the Middle Ages. It started life as a Benedictine monastery; however, the cathedral was saved from the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1540s. The monks of Chester were obsessed with the battle between light and darkness, and they loved to tell ghost stories of reanimated corpses and nighttime visits by the Devil, among others. Indeed, old monastic sites such as this are often associated with stories of the supernatural, which we use today to help us to interpret and explain the buildings.

The devilish Chester Imp hidden inside Chester Cathedral (Image: Getty)

The Victorian scholar and writer, M. R. James, collected stories from medieval monasteries. His Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, published in 1904, remains the blueprint of the modern ghost story. BBC4 regularly shows a modern adaptation of one of his ghost stories on Christmas Eve. James said the aim of the ghost story was ‘a pleasing terror’, and the monks of Chester loved a pleasing terror. That’s why there’s an unlikely figure dwelling on the north side of the cathedral to the left of the altar: the Devil himself. It’s known as the Chester Imp and plays on the everyday traditions of the Middle Ages. To the monks, God and the Devil were ever present, so they had to be vigilant. The carving, likely to be from the late 1400s, sends a metaphorical warning to the Devil that the monks were watching out for him. Medieval beliefs also provided the monks with a handy business plan, however. As people in the Middle Ages cared deeply about a sin-free death, richer families would pay the monks handsomely to pray for the souls of dead, facilitating their passage to heaven. As such, medieval monasteries became prayer factories for the dead.

Author David Atkinson talks a walk with the ghosts of Chester past. (Image: Kirsty Thompson)

TRAGIC TALES

The historic Falcon public house was home to Sir Richard Grosvenor during the English Civil War of the 1640s, when Chester declared itself a Royalist city in support of Charles I. In recent times, ghost stories regularly accompanied a quick pint at The Falcon (currently closed). They recall a young servant girl who was accused of stealing, dismissed and cast out. The events took place in the depths of a particularly cold winter and the poor girl, left destitute, eventually perished. She is said to have returned to the Falcon to make her presence felt – her pale face and ragged attire captured in shadowy photographs over the years.

Across town on Northgate Street, The Bluebell is also home to ghostly tales. The building, an inn and tavern for much of its life, now serves as a restaurant and is a timber-framed structure thought to date from the 15th century. On the eve of the Battle of Rowton Heath in September 1645, one of its residents was Henrietta, who had fallen for a Royalist soldier and who, as he rode out to battle, watched from an upper window, pledging to wait for his return. But her soldier beau never returned. Henrietta has subsequently made her presence felt many times over the years. That’s why, to this day, staff say goodnight to her as they lock up after the evening service.

The Cross, Bridge Street, Chester, 1978.

A PLACE OF PUNISHMENT

Standing at The Cross takes us to the height of Chester’s golden age. The half-timbered Rows buildings, the work of the Victorian architect T. M. Lockwood, have become a symbol of Chester. Indeed, they featured on postage stamps to mark the European Architectural Heritage Year 1975. The Cross has been at the heart of Chester’s civic life since the Middle Ages. Before that, it marked the crossroads at the centre of the Roman fortress of Deva. However, it was also one of the darkest places in Chester, home to the pillory, a wooden framework where offenders were exposed to public abuse. The pillory, complete with its stocks and whipping post, was sited in full view of citizens as they went about their daily business. These days, Chester’s Town Crier is fond of putting visitors in a mock pillory as part of his summertime proclamations.

A Christmas Carol remains our favourite ghostly festive tale. Charles Dickens performed in Chester in 1867. (Image: Getty)

BAH HUMBUG

Our favourite Victorian ghost story remains A Christmas Carol. First published by Charles Dickens in 1843 (the same year we started sending Christmas cards), it provides the blueprint for the Victorian-style festivities we still celebrate. What’s more, the description of Marley’s ghost, the spirit rattling its chains, has gifted us the festive phrase, ‘Humbug’. Chester’s connection to the story is to be found at the modern-day Superdrug on St Werburgh Street. The building, a former chapel and music hall, was remodelled by the architect James Harrison in the mid-1800s and a blue plaque on the façade records how Dickens performed there in 1867. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, for Dickens, who was attracting sell-out crowds to his reading tours, yet his health was failing. ‘Mercy,’ cries Scrooge. ‘Why do spirits walk the earth,’ he asks, ‘and why do they come to me?’

Good question. I love sharing tales from the dark side of Chester and the way these haunting stories, returning each year like the ghost of Christmas past, have become part of our festive season. So bah, humbug to the tinsel, chocolate orange and endless screenings of Love Actually. For me, nothing says Christmas like a ghostly tale of Chester past and I thank the Victorians for their fascination with the macabre, just as Chester is thankful for its Victorian Gothic makeover. So, join me for Dark Chester and let’s take a walk on the dark side. After all, spooky stories are for life, not just for Christmas.

A Dark History of Chester, David Atkinson’s new book about the haunting, haunted city. (Image: Supplied)

Dark Chester is published by Amberley Publishing, priced £15.99. David Atkinson leads the Dark Chester tour on Saturday evenings and by appointment. davidatkinson.tours.