Our research project is interested in medieval Chester as a frontier town, located on the border between England and Wales. Walking through the heart of medieval Chester, I noticed how many vantage-points within the city offer views over the Welsh landscape in the distance.

These vistas set up powerful juxtapositions and contrasts: Chester’s man-made fortifications set against the immense hills on the horizon; the crowded, enclosed spaces of busy urban life alongside the open landscape of mountains and moors in the distance. I gained some sense of how, for a medieval inhabitant of the city, the contrasts embodied in these vistas might have underlined their ideas about Welsh difference, otherness and the dichotomy between English city life and the wild world of North Wales beyond.

Catherine and Mark recover their breath and admire the view at the top of St Werburghs tower (not normally open to the public)