Chester: England’s Most Haunted City

Why Chester is the Most Haunted City in England

Most Haunted City?

York, Edinburgh, and even donkey Derby all lay claim to be England’s – or even Europe’s – most haunted city.

Yet their claims are tenuous, at best. For each of them conveniently forgets Chester, in North-West England.

Chester can rightly and justly claim to be the most haunted city in England. Our paranormal credentials are impeccable. You could even say it’s Chester that puts the super in supernatural!

Chester is an ancient walled city steeped in history. Some 2,000 years ago, Chester was founded as one the three main Roman legionary fortresses in the province of Britannia (along with York and Caerleon, in south Wales).

When the Romans left, Chester became home to successive waves of Celts, Vikings, Saxons and Normans. Edward I’s medieval armies mustered at Chester for the war against the Welsh; English troops bound for Ireland sailed from Chester; Royalist cavaliers defended the walled city for eighteen months against their cruel Parliamentarian besiegers; Chester was a powerhouse of Victorian prosperity. In short, Chester’s history is Britain’s history in microcosm.

All of which means Chester has seen every high and low of human existence: joy and jubilation, famine, floods, plague and war. Even today, Chester remains a vibrant and genuinely atmospheric city.

2,000 Years of History

It’s hardly surprising, then, that packed within Chester’s defensive walls, its narrow streets and alleyways, its crypts and cellars, are a host of well-documented ghosts, hauntings, apparitions, spooks and poltergeists from almost every century across two millennia.

So there are significant and genuine grounds for claiming that compact and ancient Chester is actually the most haunted city in England.

But don’t take our word for it; listen to an expert.

A Catalogue of Ghosts

To substantiate our claim, we’ve begun the long process of cataloguing Chester’s ghosts, poltergeists and hauntings: street by street and house by house.

So far, of course, the list is far from exhaustive. But, as new first hand accounts come in, the list grows longer every day. It seems Chester’s venerable ghosts demand recognition.

And so the day when Chester is widely, and officially, recognised as England’s most haunted city draws near. Watch this space.