Why I love Living In Dog Friendly Chester!

I’m Dobby, a lurcher and according to my Mummy, a handsome boy.

I wasn’t always beautiful or loved though. When I was about six months old mummy found me eating out of the cat food tins in her recycling bins! She took me to the vets to see if I had something called a chip in my neck. I don’t know why they were looking for chips cos there were none of them in her recycling boxes, I was very hungry I would have found them!

Anyways I had no chip and mummy said she would keep me unless I was claimed. Well, boy, am I glad no one claimed me cos at mummy’s house I had loads of food. I got a bed of my own, although I do like to sleep on what mummy and daddy say are sofas and chairs. These days, I’m always going on adventures. So here’s my first blog – a little tribute to my hometown Chester.

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Sometimes it’s nice to wander, enjoy the sights and smells, whilst giving your hooman a chance to stop along the way to look in shops, enjoy a coffee and a meal and just take in the history and ambience of a place.

Well, I love Chester for all these reasons. I will quite often take both my hoomans for a walk around this lovely city. Full of history and dog loving people. Sometimes I only take one hooman, sometimes two. It’s doesn’t matter because no matter who comes we always manage to sniff out places that even after them living in this area for over forty years are new to them.

Mum says it’s because they are looking at the area through a different set of eyes, mine!

Quite often they will park down at the Chester Little Roodee car park, you can park all day for £5.00 so it’s not a bad amount to pay in a city. From the Roodee, we will come and walk along the bank of the river Dee. Sometimes we can watch the local rowing club on the wate, or the people in canoes etc. There are even big boats that do River trips such as the Lady Diana, well worth doing on a nice summer day or early evening. You can walk along to the big metal bridge and walk up and over it and along the meadows, but I will leave that tale for another day. Today I will tell you about visiting the Romans!!

Chester Was A Roman Garrison

There are loads of old stones that create an amphitheatre. To get there from the river, you turn left and walk up through the Grosvenor Park. This park is wonderful with open grass, trees, squirrels by the bucket load, that mum refuses to let me chase! A big children’s play park is on one side, ok dogs aren’t allowed in there, but I don’t mind! There is also a pond and a miniature train!!

If you walk out through the top of the park and come out the entrance on the left-hand side you will continue across to the Roman amphitheatre. Loads of history here for the two-legged people! Chester was a Roman garrison and there are still loads of Roman buildings in and around Chester, one of which I will tell you about very soon!

Carry on to the left, and at the crossroads turn right and cross over the road towards the shops. Here the hoomans can shop walking up the road, climbing up the steps into the “rows”, something that Chester is famous for!

If you walk up to the rows where you will find my new favourite tea/coffee shop! Wow yummy cakes, doggy treats and a bowl of water, they fall over themselves to make their furry visitors welcome. Mum says their food is good too. I have to agree as I managed to help mum eat some of hers. They are called Mad Hatters Tearoom, you really must visit. Mum spoke to the manager/owner who had come down to visit with us, and she said dogs made everyone happy. Her staff were happy with dogs to fuss and that makes it a totally happy place! I wish all places were this good.

When you can bear to pull yourself away from all those lovely cakes, then carry up onto the Cross. This is where you will often see and hear the town crier. Turn right and continue along under the famous Chester clock. If you turn left after the clock and walk along Frodsham street you can call into another dog-friendly cafe called Bean and Cole, once again you will all be made welcome.

The Roman Walls

A little further on and you can take a left turn and climb up onto the Roman walls. Once on this, you can walk all the way around the city. It’s a great way to get a bird’s eye view of all the old houses, the Chester Cathedral, the canal etc.

It is said that once curfew happened in the city of Chester that it was legal to kill a Welshman using a bow and arrow from the walls. I think that this rule is no longer in effect, but as I didn’t see any Welshmen or people carrying bows and arrows I am unable to be sure about this.

It is a nice walk around the walls, these are all the original Roman walls that kept the city of Chester or Deva safe. There have been a few bridges built to get over the new roadways but they are all built to keep in the general ambience.

In this picture, you can see how some of the Tudor houses are built so near the Roman walls that we can almost touch the roofs. So not only do we have Romans but we also have the black and white houses of Tudor times, we have a city steeped in history, or that’s what Mum says.

Another few from the walls is overlooking the Chester racecourse. When the Romans lived here it was actually a harbour! Now they race horses around it! I would love a chance to run around there!!

You can do the full circuit all the way around the city walking on these walls, the clock that we walked under earlier on we actually walk alongside.

Follow on along the walls and we come down by the cathedral. There are so many wonderful places and pictures that Mum took far more photos than we can post on this blog. But she has promised me that she will post more of them in a future one.

Pay a Visit To The Dog Friendly Chester

Why don’t you Come along and visit Chester? There is plenty of places to see and visit for a weekend or longer.  You never know you might even see me and my hooman walking around. If you do please be sure to come across and say hello!!

By Dobby with a little bit of help from his hooman Kay xx

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Follow Dobby and Kay’s adventures via Instagram @dobbyscoats